Brett Agnew 'over the moon' to sign off spell as Bridlington Town boss by keeping Seasiders in NPL Division East

Agnew was delighted to sign off his four years as Seasiders manager by keeping the Queensgate club in the East Division.

The player-boss, who was forced to sit out the game through suspension along with skipper Pete Davidson, said: “I am over the moon to have managed to get the win to keep us up at the end of four years here.

“It has been such a tough season, but I think our turning point came when we lost 7-0 at home to Marske United back in October.

“Me, Lamps (assistant boss Joe Lamplough) and coach Alex Davidson all had a good look at ourselves after that result and we decided that is not happening to us again.

“We knew it was time to work on a different way of playing and try to be harder to beat.

“From then on we started to get some better performances and then the results came as well, but the amount of times we had to play with just two or three subs and lots of players playing with injuries and still carrying on when they were shattered, made it hard to gain momentum.

“I have had to play so many games due to the injuries, 28, when I should have been concentrating on managing, and Lamps also had to play seven before he got his injury.

“To win the last game of the season in the last minute with a penalty-kick to stay up is an excellent way to finish our time in charge at Bridlington, it was great to have that high of staying up and spending a cracking night celebrating with the lads after the game.”

Agnew added: “Lamps and I are gutted to be leaving as there is now the basis of a great squad here, it just needs more backing which is why we came to the decision to move on.

“If we’d started the season with the squad which played the final couple of months we’d never have been dragged into a relegation battle.

“I think after the first seven games ended in defeats most people wrote us off after going straight back down to the Northern Counties East League Premier, so it is great to prove people wrong.”

Agnew was full of praise for many for helping him during the season.

The player-boss added: “I have to give most of my thanks to my wife as she has put up with me missing so much family time with her and the kids, and for putting up with my bad moods through the season.

“She has been brilliant and been a rock for me when I have had so may sleepless nights wondering how we could even raise a team for games due to injuries.

“I would like to thank everyone at the club from the bar staff in the club to the ground staff to the fans who have given me and the players such great backing all season.

“I am glad that we stayed up for the fans and everyone at the club as they deserve to stay up but also the next manager deserved to start at this level.

“As a team we thoroughly deserved to stay up as I think we are definitely better than the four sides who finished below us in the league table.”

Looking back at the game, Agnew was very worried by the flat atmosphere caused by the nerves among the home fans in the first half against Dunston.

Agnew said: “It was so quiet in the first half as the nerves among the fans was causing there to be no noise.

“I tried to get some of the fans to make some noise and eventually a bunch of 20 or so youngsters started singing some songs and this started to lift the lads and we managed to level just before half-time.

“In the second half we were much better and deservedly went in front, they managed to level late on but we then were awarded a penalty by the ref only for the linesman to rule it out.

“Then we were given a penalty, which was never a penalty, but we’ve had some bad calls go against this season so we gladly took it and Denno smashed it superbly into the top corner.”

Dunston took the lead with half an hour gone, Michael Fowler slotting the ball past James Hitchcock one-on-one.

Brid got a lifeline on the stroke of half-time, Danny Earl’s sensational lob from 25 yards made it 1-1.

Man of the match Earl’s curled effort from the edge of the penalty area, on his weaker left foot, gave the hosts the lead after 57 minutes.

The visitors struck again through Fowler, seven minutes from time. With results going against Brid, things were looking bleak, especially when Brid were awarded a penalty, only for it to be overruled by the linesman.

However, in the 90th minute, yet another penalty was awarded to Brid. Up stepped Dennison, who calmly slotted it into the top-right corner to secure the Seasiders’ place in the division next season.