What a season Lee Ashcroft and Longridge Town had last campaign as they clinched the NWCFL Division One North title at the first time of asking - a feat only a few clubs have ever achieved.
Ashcroft has been with the club for five seasons and has seen a huge rise from the West Lancashire League just two seasons ago, "It was our first taste at that level as well and the lads took to it and we played some very, very good football. We scored a lot of goals, took the League by storm and went on to win it. Avro ran us all the way and fair play to them for doing that. Every time we kept winning, they kept winning and it went right down to the last game of the season. Luckily enough we did our job and got the three points to gain our promotion but most importantly the championship."
Ashcroft commented on the difference between they two leagues [NWCFL and West Lancashire League], "There is now, certainly. There's more professionalism about the clubs, more people come and watch and there are better players at the level. It was a big step and the club did it. We did the stuff we needed to behind the scenes to get the ground up to the standard it needed to be. We worked hard in five years to make that happen and we reaped our rewards for everyone at the football club who were there last season."
"I'd snap your hand off if you told me I was going to finish midtable, I really, really would! I'm going to stay loyal to the lads that won us the title. I've added a couple of additions. It's going to be a difficult season for us but I'm hopeful we can do okay. If we can stay in the Division and finish midtable it would be a fantastic achievement.
And now the club has qualified for the Emirates FA Cup for the first time in their history, "We are actually in the FA Cup here at our ground on the day, which has cost us a few quid but it's a once in a lifetime experience. It's the first time we've been in the FA Cup. It's exciting times and hopefully, the town will get behind us for the day. To have the FA Cup here is a fantastic thing for the town and the club.
"We have [managed to retain most of the squad]. They're close and they're a great bunch to work with. We've lost Jay-Jay. He's gone over to Bhutan to play his football and he's doing really well over there but the rest of them will stay. I've added one or two. We need to be better defensively and we've been working on that preseason. They've done well in some of the preseason games against higher opposition and we're hopeful we're ready for the start on 3rd August.
🗓️ Our 2019/20 @nwcfl Premier Division fixtures in full 👇#NWCFLFixtures #UpTheRidge pic.twitter.com/DItMt4ZIAQ
— Longridge Town FC (@LongridgeTownFC) July 15, 2019
On Monday, the fixtures came out and Ashcroft commented, "It couldn't be any worse of a start, to be honest! We've three away games; three difficult away games. Avro, our biggest enemy and we go there in our first game of the season, then away at Irlam, then away at Congleton, who I'm expecting to be up there. It'll be a difficult start and I'd take three points now if you were going to give them to me and we'll take it from there. There are going to be swings and roundabouts throughout the season. I'm just hopeful we'll get enough points at home to keep us safe and secure."
