Tamworth FC have time to celebrate

May 2 2009 by Colin Stoner, Birmingham Mail

CHAMPIONS Tamworth will have the chance to celebrate their dream season in style before Gary Mills begins to plot their return to non-League’s top tier.

The Blue Square North title winners stage their presentation night tonight and will then have an open top bus parade in Tamworth to meet the mayor, Coun Brian Beale, at the Town Hall tomorrow.

But deserved congratulations on a remarkable nine months will then turn to hard-working anticipation for a return to the Blue Square Premier.

Manager Mills is expected to meet chairman Bob Andrews next week to discuss the future and to hammer out new deals.

Mills and No 2 Darron Gee are both out of contract, along with the bulk of the squad, but the management duo want to know their future before they can tie down the squad.

Since many of the players are under 24, the Lambs do have some recompense if out-of-contract players do exit but Mills and Gee want to keep the squad together.

“This is the busiest time of year for any manager,” said Gee. “There are a lot of issues to be sorted out.

“But we want to get Saturday out of the way first and enjoy it. The players deserve all the credit they get.

“Then the gaffer will see the chairman. There’s a lot of decisions to be made.

“Ideally we want to stay and keep the players who have done such a good job this season.

“But I would imagine a lot is going to be decided by finance. Times are hard and there aren’t bucketloads of cash at any club.”

After the parade tomorrow, which starts at the Lamb at noon, the players will jet off to continue their celebration with a short break in Spain.

Meanwhile, Mills erased the heartache of missing out on the Southern Premier title with the Lambs in 2002 when he not only collected the 2009 title but also played in the final match.

The 47-year-old former Nottingham Forest and Leicester City player made a surprise appearance on the bench in the final fixture at AFC Telford United.