BRADFORD side Route One Rovers are gearing up for their first-ever competitive game in semi-professional football this afternoon, a day that has been five years in the making.

They host Ashton Town at Marley in the North West Counties Football League First Division North, having made the big move up from the Yorkshire Amateur League.

Club chairman Sameel Mahmood told the T&A: “There’s a lot of excitement, as we’ve been planning the move for five or six years.

“We previously applied to move up in 2018, but we couldn’t get the pitch we wanted for midweek games.

“We’ve still got here quickly though, as we were only formed in 2013.”

For now, they are grateful to be ground sharing with divisional rivals Steeton, but Mahmood confirmed: “We are looking at grounds in Bradford and there is something in the pipeline, with us having discussions with Bradford Council.

“Hopefully we’ll be back to playing in Bradford in a couple of years as we have a lot of fans there, though playing at Marley means we’ve attracted supporters from Keighley too.”

While they have signed some players who have semi-pro experience, Mahmood was not about to abandon those who had got them here.

He said: “We’ve kept all our players from last season, but we’ve signed more as we’ll be playing two games a week a lot.

“We have 10 matches in the first 30 days of the season, so squad rotation will be key.

“There’ll be injuries and we have three of our lads banned for the first few games of this term, for offences last year, so you just can’t afford to have a small squad.

“If we had 10 players in an amateur game, I could come on and play, but that’s obviously not possible at semi-pro.”

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Route One taking on Steeton's reserves during their amateur days.Route One taking on Steeton's reserves during their amateur days. (Image: Andy Garbutt.)

As for the extra travel to Cumbria and Lancashire, Mahmood is not worried, saying: “We’ll be okay and everyone knows what to expect.

“We’ve got a minibus and it’s not as far as it could have been.

“Bar the odd trip, like Holker and AFC Blackpool, most away games are within about an hour and 20 minutes, and we used to travel 40-odd minutes to games in Leeds anyway, so it’s largely just an extra half-hour on top.”

Route One are an ambitious side too, with Mahmood saying: “We don’t want to just stay at step six, we want to push on.

“We’ve made new signings and I think we’ll do okay, with the aim of pushing for the play-offs.

“But there’s a bit of the unknown this year, as we don’t know a lot of these teams, and we have been told this league is harder than the Northern Counties East League.”