Malvern Town make the short trip to Evesham United in the Pitching In Southern League Division One South play-off final on Monday afternoon (kick-off 3pm).
It’s been an historic season for the Hillsiders who have secured their highest-ever finish and points tally and two of their summer signings who have helped them achieve it are Dion Molyneux and Joe Tumelty.
Both players have brought higher-level experience and know-how into the mix to complement a loyal core that has served the club well as they have climbed up the levels.
“Back in the summer I had a long conversation with Soots [co-manager, Stephen Cleal] about the club and its aspirations,” Molyneux told us. “He spoke with passion about how the club were building things step-by-step and having finished just inside the top ten at the end of last season, challenging for the play-offs was the next target.
“Now we’ve achieved that, why can’t we go on and secure promotion? This team has made history; the boys have been class on and off the pitch and the relationship between the players has grown every week.
“It was such an easy group to integrate with. The players, staff and supporters welcomed me in with open arms and because of that I was able to hit the ground running and establish a regular place in the team.”
There has been a real local flavour to the play-offs with the semi-final seeing them make the 20-mile trip to Bishops Cleeve where a keenly-fought encounter ebbed-and-flowed and ended in a 3-2 extra-time victory.
“Wednesday’s game was a typical local derby with both teams going at it,” Molyneux continued. “They beat us twice in the League but we went into it with plenty of confidence from our long unbeaten run.
“We know that when we’re at it we can beat anyone and we were able to stretch our run to 19 games without defeat.
“There were some top performances on the night and we’ll need that again on Monday in what is another local derby.
“We’re really looking forward to the occasion. To think that we were sat in 15th place in the table at the start of January and now we’re playing for the chance to move up into Step 3; it’s crazy!
“Just like in the semi-final the local rivalry will add something extra to it. Evesham have been on a great run like ourselves and it almost led them to the title having briefly taken top spot over Easter after clawing back a 13-point deficit on Yate Town.
“Unlike Wednesday where we had lost both of our League games against Bishops Cleeve, this time we’ve done the double over Evesham United this season and there’s not a lot of clubs who can say that. Will that impact what happens on Monday? I don’t think so because anything can happen in play-off finals.
“We’ll go there and try to be the best version of ourselves. We know that there will be a large and vocal contingent of fans there to back us all the way, as they have done all season, and we’ll be doing all we can to give them something to celebrate at the end.”
Meanwhile Joe Tumelty is also relishing the occasion.
“These are the games that you are desperate to be involved in,” he said. “I’m full of excitement for it; it’s what all of our hard work since the summer has been leading towards.
“I joined with the ambition of making the play-offs and whilst we struggled to get into our stride properly early on in the season, I always knew that this group was good enough to challenge.
“But I suppose when you’re sat in the bottom half of the table at the start of the New Year, closer to the relegation zone than the play-off places, you do start to wonder if it’s going to be your season.
“Then, all of a sudden, things just clicked into place and the momentum grew and grew. To go 19 unbeaten and be one game from promotion is a great story.
“The fact that we’ve taken ten points from the top two gives us plenty of hope as we go into Monday’s game. It will be two in-form local rivals going head-to-head in front of a big crowd. Can it get any better than this? This is what you play football for and we’ll be making sure that we come off that pitch with absolutely no regrets.”
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IMAGE: Cliff Williams
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