Silsden want to repay their fans (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Silsden want to repay their fans

2:40pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Sport By Ian Whiting

Silsden's assistant manager Danny Bolton feels the backing from the clubs fans has made their return to the village even more gratifying.

The Cobbydalers had to vacate their spiritual home of Keighley Road to continue their progress on to the non-league ladder because their success on the pitch had outstripped their timescale of home improvements.

In order to join the North West Counties League, they needed a floodlit venue that offered better facilities to attain the required ground grading.

That led to a spell as tenants of the Keighley Cougars at Cougar Park.

Renting that stadium for their home games slowed the progress they were making back in the village because of the finances.

Relentless money-raising and thousands of hours of unpaid work by the committee and other volunteers finally culminated in them returning to the shining and newly-named ASDA Foundation Stadium.

Bolton said: “The crowds this season have been fantastic, and we want to finish the season as high as possible for them.

"The average has been 120-ish, and for the big games we have been getting anything between 250 and 300.

"That is when we play well-supported teams near the top of the league but they are all here keeping the turnstiles ticking over.

“Our own support has been superb as they back us to the hilt. We would like to repay them, firstly with consistency, and we are fully confident we can do that.

"We have been delighted with the response from the village and they have got behind us in every way.

"That has made it a special homecoming, and Chris (Reape, manager) and I believe we will get stronger and stronger now that we are back at our own place.”