Roper and Railway captain sign up for Tadcaster Albion revival

Since the Brewers’ relegation to the Northern Counties Eastern League premier division, O’Connell has quickly put the gears into place to recruit for the new season, as Tadcaster look to return to the eighth tier at the first time of asking.

Midfielder Corey Roper has extended his stay with the Brewers, now entering his fourth year with the club, after beginning his career with Leeds United.

Roper said: “I spoke with the gaffer and liked what I heard. Obviously, I want to do well this year and be up there, so I think it was an easy decision.

“A club like Tadcaster, decent facilities, everybody wants to come and play here, so we want to do well and push back up.

“Things behind the scenes here probably were not as good as they should have been.

“I left in September – just certain things happening at that time, and then came back to help Andy Monkhouse before getting injured, so I didn’t really play much.

“It was a frustrating time, I think, for everybody at the club, even coming down to watch games.

“I don’t really know too much about the gaffer, just what I’ve seen online but I have heard a lot of good things: he speaks well and wants to do it the right way professionally, which is what you want to come into; so, the first signs are good.

“The players he’s signed I think are very good as well, especially for this level, so I’m looking forward to it.

“You want to try at least to be in the play-offs and be up there. There are a lot of big teams in this league now, so I think we need to be around it, see what happens at the end of the year and go from there.”

Dan Thirkell is another player returning to the So-Trak Stadium for his second spell in North Yorkshire, re-uniting with O’Connell after their time together at Harrogate Railway.

The 35-year-old come in to help bolster the defence, after previous spells with Scarborough Athletic and Knaresborough Town and formerly captaining Harrogate Railway.

Thirkell said: “They had just got promoted out of the NCEL Prem into the Evo Stick and at that point there was a huge, huge buzz around the club.

“The club really wanted to progress, move forward and up the leagues. They played really good attacking football – it was good to be a part of

“I play as a centre half and bring leadership and calmness to the team. Hopefully, I instil some of that into the younger lads whilst defensively I think I am pretty solid and good on the ball, hopefully starting moves through the thirds.”

“When I signed at Railway he was one of the key factors why I initially went there and when he originally spoke to me about coming here it was a bit of a no-brainer.

“I like the style of football, I like what the management team bring as a collective, the professionalism and the way Mick wants to play football – the attractive build up from the back.

“For me at the ripe old age of thirty-five! I still want to play as many games as I can and I don’t think that will change any time soon to be honest.

“I do not see why we shouldn’t be competing at the top of the table – bare minimum I’d say is the play-offs. You can see some of the quality that’s already here and there are a few other lads still to come in.

“By any stretch of the imagination I don’t see why we shouldn’t be up there and really giving it a good go of challenging again.”