Jamie Hopwood advances with Pickering and “over the moon”

Pikes now ranks ninth ahead of Saturday's final league match against Ecclesill, significantly improving his 19th place position last season.

Tony Hackworth's team had scored a playoff push, but we've seen their hopes that the top five finishes will disappear after three consecutive losses.

And while Hopwood admits that Pickering has been their own worst enemy, he is pleased with their season on and off the pitch.

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“It's (a little bit away),” he told the Gazette and the Herald. “But everyone will say, 'Wow, it's great to go from last season's location to where you finish this season from 19th.”

“We're a bit disappointed (to miss the playoffs). We're very goal-driven. I'm certainly a manager. But I think we had a certain thing in our control this year.

“In our early seasons, we share with the Cricket Club. We play five or six away games at the beginning of the season. Our attitude and mentality probably wasn't the best for those games and we dropped points.

“But overall, I'm definitely going to cross the moon with that, to be honest.

“The ground atmosphere is the best I've seen in my time at the club. There's a fan base that's been around for 10 or 20 years behind the club. They're really pleased with the quality of the team and there's really buzz about the place.

“Last year was terrible. It was like 'This is what we know what we have' for the week.' We had three or four centre halfs and if there was no striker shape at all, we had a full back on the bench knowing that our hands were perfectly tied and it was long and difficult.

“I really chaff and definitely please where we went.

“We're beginning to change the mentality of the people who love the club and support it. That's great. We need to build it now and go right next year.

Pickering manager Tony Hackworth and assistant Joe Connor both agree to stay on 26/2025. (Image: Ellen Thornton) In terms of what led to change, the Chair believes that the unity of recruitment and play team certainly plays that role.

“In my opinion, it starts with the team,” explained Hopwood.

“Let's say it's a 16-square-kilomet team sport. Everyone plays their part at some point. For me, it's absolutely important for the team to ride well together, trust each other and share the same desires.

“It's pretty whimsical at this level, people move clubs for wages at £5 or £10 a week. I always sit with Tony and say, “If you want to create the right environment, people aren't trying to chase Yorkshire afterwards because they want to come to our club.”

“Instead, let's make something special where they want to come to us.”

“The positive issue is that you have to decide who you want and who you don’t, and that’s where you build your team and continue to succeed.

“I think we've taken some good steps towards that.”

Pickering's idea is already heading for next season, with pre-season friendlys outweighing the already lined pyramids.

“In recent weeks, we have already begun investigating next season.

“It's like, 'Who can keep it?' Unfortunately, there's a couple that we wanted to keep, but once again it's out of our control.

“It's about making sure we keep the people at the heart and then start building on it. That team is in place right away, so they can start preparing and training because the pre-season friendship we have is very exciting.

“We're continuing that relationship as Bradford City is down again. At that point, there's no date in the diary. There's something friendly with the Scarborough First Team.

“We are still waiting for a few others, and we can't say it yet, but we want to build relationships that we have at a fairly high level and get some bigger profile teams.

“The Scarborough game is already booked at Millane and Bradford can definitely do it in Millane too. It's better as long as you can take people there.

“For us, it's probably about bringing in locals who don't come out that often.