Farsley assistant manager Neil Parsley feels the club’s capture of Craig Bentham owes a lot to the former Bradford City player’s loan to the club last season.

Bentham’s stay at Throstle Nest coincided with a good run of results but when he returned to Valley Parade the Celts’ form fell away and they ultimately suffered relegation from the Blue Square Premier.

Yet the midfielder showed enough during his spell at Farsley to convince the management to pull out all the stops to get him back on board for next season.

“The supporters of Farsley saw the same as myself and John (manager Deacey) when Craig came to us last term,” said Parsley.

“We all looked to him for the inspiration to gain the points we needed to secure our place in the Conference league.

“We came so close and if Craig hadn’t had to return to Valley Parade for the last month of the campaign we might well have avoided relegation. That is how influential he was.

“That is in the past now as we did go down into the Blue Square North and have to ready ourselves for an attempt to bounce straight back. We saw enough of Craig to decide that if he became available we would go for him.”

At that stage Farsley were still in the Blue Square Premier and were hoping to tempt Bentham to drop down one division. As it turned out they had to try to get him to sign even after being relegated.

Parsley said: “When City released him, John and myself were on the phone to him straight away. We tried our best to sell the club to him in the hope that he would sign on and the board moved mountains to put a package together that would make it worth his while.

“It was still up in the air because of the interest in him from other clubs currently higher up the pyramid system than us but I would like to think that his experience here last season helped him to choose this club.

“Craig enjoyed his time with us last season, even though it was a short period. Him joining Farsley on a full transfer is a major signing for us because we witnessed how much we missed him in the run-in last year.

“We also think it will send out a signal of our ambition to other clubs and also to other potential signings. They should see the signings of Craig and Tom Penford as proof of this football club’s future direction.

“The board, John and myself are working hard on negotiations with others to secure their involvement in the coming season. We aim to have two or three more putting pen to paper on good deals for all concerned before next week.”