Tideswell commence life at step seven of the non-league pyramid

Bradbury, who has spent the last few seasons working in the youth and reserve setup at Buxton, helped form what is essentially a new team in the village, getting it accepted into the Central Midlands League North and bringing several players with him from the Silverlands to help form the squad.

Tideswell’s existing team remain in the Hope Valley League Premier Division but are now a reserve side having been promoted from Division A last season.

And now Bradbury, who lives in Tideswell, is hoping to attract more supporters and sponsors to the club as they aim to potentially progress higher up the leagues in the future.

He said: “We had no trouble being accepted into the Central Midlands League North as our ground fulfilled all the necessary criteria and they were happy to have us.

“The response has been excellent. We’re still very much a work in progress but have some good local players in the side and have had a steady start to the league season with three wins and three defeats so far.

“This season is all about trying to establish ourselves as a team in the pyramid and then we can look to tweak things accordingly if we want to make a push for promotion to step six, which is certainly something we’d like to do eventually.

“We may need some sponsorship on board and potentially even have to look at paying players a little bit of money too, but that’s not on the agenda at the moment.”

Bradbury says the club has had around 50-60 spectators at its home games so far but is hoping to attract more to the Tideswell Sports Complex where they can watch a good standard of football.

He said: “I want people to know that there’s a good level of football on their doorstep and that if they’re regulars at places like Buxton and fancy a change, or if Buxton are away on a weekend, that we’re a good alternative.

“We’ve got refreshments at each game along with a match programme that gets put together, and will soon have a new clubhouse and function room available too.”

In terms of adapting to life in the Central Midlands League North, Bradbury says it’s been challenging in some aspects but also that the differences to what the club has been used to in the past are considerable.

He added: “It was quite daunting, as you can imagine, bringing a new club into a new league as we didn’t really know what to expect.

“It’s been good to have three independent officials at each game and the grounds we’re visiting are a lot better than what the club has been used to in the past.

“What you do know is you’re going to get a good and hard game of football every week in a competitive league which also has promotion as an option at the end of the season.

“We’re still keen to attract volunteers to help out on various levels, from matchday roles to helping with our PR and so on, but so far things have gone really well.”

Tideswell have a CMFL League Cup match this weekend at home to Appleby Frodingham with a 3pm kick-off. they host AFC Bentley in a league game on September 24.