Bourne Town have been crowned United Counties League Division One champions

Bourne Town have been crowned United Counties League Division One champions.

Despite their match at Clifton All Whites being postponed on Saturday, second-placed Clipstone went down to a 2-1 away defeat at Leicester St Andrews.

That leaves the Cobras 14 points adrift of the Wakes with just four league matches of their campaign remaining.

The title triumph returns the Wakes back to step five of the non-league pyramid with manager Michael Goode thrilled at the achievements of the Abbey Lawn club.

He said: "I am delighted for everyone connected with the club and those people who have been around it for such a long time.

"Chris Good came in as chairman three or four years ago and what he has done to stablise the club and get everyone moving in the same direction is phenomenal.

"He does it for the love of the club and the town where he has been brought up in and gone to school in and played football for. There is a lot of time, energy and commitment there."

Goode had returned to the club two seasons ago as director of football before taking over as first team boss after Steve Wilson stepped down earlier in the campaign.

Bourne overturned an early deficit on Clipstone and have recorded 31 wins from their 35 games this season.

Goode added: "It's a tough division to get out of and the process of trying to do that started two years ago.

"Chris asked me to come in and he is someone that I've known for 30 years.

"I liked what I saw with the club and they made me feel very welcome.

"We made some really big strides last season and Steve Wilson deserves a lot of credit.

"People talk about the volunteers at the clubs but managers at this level are volunteers as well.

"Steve, Matt Robinson and Junior Jones put a lot of time and energy into running that team.

"We added some good players which I was part of and Steve carried that on at the start of the season.

"Obviously, he had his reasons for stepping down but, when Chris asked me to take over, we had a really good group of lads.

"I was pretty clear on the areas we could still improve and managed to add more players of quality.

"Once you get the momentum going then those players which were already there got better and they have been unbelievably good right from when I took over.

"They have been absolutely relentless in terms of their approach to games, training and how they prepare. They have been very professional in everything they have done, which is just the sort of lads they are."

The home fans will get the chance to see Bourne's championship winning side in action on Easter Monday when they host neighbours Blackstones (3pm).

Goode commented: "It would have been nice to have won with everyone together after a game because we didn't really want to win it with Clipstone dropping points.

"Having said that, we can be a little bit more relaxed on Monday. We want to win the game and hopefully a really good crowd will come out and support us, not just those who follow the football club but everyone in the town."

Blackstones were 2-1 away winners at Birstall United on Saturday after goals from Josh Barrett and Nathan Rudman. They are six points outside the play-off spots with four games remaining.