WITH Route One Rovers’ rise to semi-professional now confirmed, manager Sohail Abbas is looking ahead to an exciting future with the club.
On Monday it was announced that after months of waiting, the side from Bradford would finally get their wish and be placed in NWCFL Division One North.
Frankly, it was totally deserved, with Abbas’ side performing brilliantly over the past two seasons in the Yorkshire Amateur League – where last season they finished as invincible winners after going the full campaign unbeaten (23 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses).
Manager Abbas, the world’s first wheelchair-bound football coach, will now fulfil his dream of managing a semi-professional football club and he admitted he can’t wait to share the experience with this group of players.
He said: “This has always been the dream for me and my players and it’s something that we set out do a couple of years ago. Don’t get me wrong, it was always going to be a tough task and there are many people around the club that have had to help us achieve that, but now it’s here we are over the moon. It’s massive for the club, the players and the community that Route One Rovers represents.”
Abbas added: “It’s been an amazing couple of years for this club; first winning the treble in 2022 then winning the title and cup this season, which obviously helped massively in our Step Six application. I have to give a great deal of praise to my players because they have been phenomenal to work with; they work extremely hard. What impressed me the most was the drive of the players to succeed after just missing out on the league title in 2022. They were never beaten and they made sure they came back motivated to win that title. I don’t think anyone really contemplates going a full season unbeaten, but it became a real possibility in the final stretch because of the work the team had put into each game throughout the campaign. So, hats off to them, they’ve been amazing. I can’t wait to continue this journey with these boys.”
With Route One Rovers’ promotion to Step Six football now confirmed, they join a long list of semi-professional clubs that play out of Bradford and Abbas admitted that he is delighted to see his team compete alongside some of the best sides in the region.
He said: “There’s a lot of talent in Bradford with many good young players playing their football here. With Route One getting semi-professional status it presents another great opportunity for up-and-coming stars to join a side who are in the footballing pyramid; this will only give them a better platform to showcase their talent. It will be fun for us having several local derbies throughout the season; that’s something that excites me and the players.”
Looking ahead to Route One’s NWCFL debut campaign, Abbas admitted: “We are going into the unknown in many aspects; obviously it’s the first time as a club we have made the step up. We’d love to establish ourselves as a semi-pro club, that’s our main aim. However, any league we take part in we want to achieve the best possible; I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t want to finish near the top of the division, but we must not get too ahead of ourselves.
“We’ll give the players a bit of time off to help them rest up before the season, and that will give me the chance to have a look at who we might want to bring in to help the group. We are expecting our biggest and most important off-season yet.”
