Reaction from Spalding United manager Elliot Sandy after his side are crowned Northern Premier League Midlands Division champions
The culmination of an unbelievable run saw Spalding United crowned league champions on Saturday.
As the Tulips wrapped up the Northern Premier League Midlands Division title in style with a crushing 8-0 home victory over Coleshill, it was their seventh successive victory and marked a sensational final two-thirds of the season.
After losing at home to Corby at the start of November, Spalding reeled off 16 wins and two draws from their remaining 20 matches to finish a point clear of runners-up Anstey Nomads.
Their seven-match winning streak to the end of the season also reaped 28 goals while conceding just two after keeping five clean sheets.
It ensured a title triumph in his first full season of management for Tulips boss Elliot Sandy who admitted he had to overcome a difficult start to the campaign.
He said: "It has been tough at times, especially in my first season in management.
"I had to weather a bad patch at the start of the year when I was questioned, but we turned it around brilliantly and we've been on an unbelievable run.
"It is all credit to my backroom staff who have supported me throughout and of course the players who, to a man, have stood up game by game.
"We might not have performed brilliantly every week but we've got that togetherness to grind out results and, when we have been good, we've hammered teams."
James Clifton led the scoring spree with a four-goal haul while Glenn Walker, Lamine Sherif, Riley O'Sullivan and Tyler Winters also netted as Spalding banished any big match nerves in front of a crowd of more than 1,700 at the Sir Halley Stewart ground.
Sandy added: "There were a lot of nerves going into it but we didn't really show it.
"From my point of view, we wanted to go into the game trying to keep it as normal as possible.
"I was always confident but you just never know in football. We had to prepare right all week and make sure that everyone was focused on the job in hand.
"Once we got that first goal, I knew that there was no stopping us and the fans really turned out which was brilliant.
"I was over the moon with the performance but I didn't really care about that because it was all about winning and they did it in style."
The title triumph has moved Spalding up to step three of the non-league pyramid for the first time in the club's history and Sandy was full of praise for all of the tireless efforts behind the scenes at the club.
He commented: "I am so pleased and proud for everyone and I'm delighted for the club and the volunteers who put all the hard work in.
"They got the pitch right for us during the summer because we are a team which likes to try and play football and it has helped us.
"It's also a fantastic squad who I hope to keep together to build to go again next season."
Unofficial projections for next season have predicted that the Tulips will be placed in the Southern League Premier Division Central with the allocations officially announced next month.
