DELIGHTED joint boss Bernard Morley declared it ‘mission accomplished’ as brilliant Ramsbottom United stormed to the North West Counties League Premier Division title to kick start a party on Saturday.

The Rams needed to beat Winsford United to guarantee the title and promotion into the Evo-Stik League First Division North for the first time in their history – and they made certain there would be no nerves by blasting into a 3-0 lead inside the first 18 minutes of the game at a rocking Riverside.

Morley and fellow joint boss Anthony Johnson were surprise appointments three years ago but they have worked wonders to steer their side to glory and he beamed: “It’s mission accomplished for us.

“When we took the job we gave ourselves a target of three years to get promotion – we’ve done it.

“I’ve played at higher levels and one of the differences is that in this league, teams aren’t full of players just turning up to pick up money, they are travelling sometimes long distances to play a game of football, and once they’ve made that trip they want to win it.”

On a memorable day Lee Gaskell opened the scoring inside 90 seconds and by the time the clock had ticked to 18 minutes it was 3-0 thanks to goals from Grant Spencer and Ian Flannery.

Jamie Henders pulled one back for Winsford as the Cheshire outfit threatened to spoil the party – but Jon Robinson slotted home a fourth right on the stroke of half-time and then a fifth three minutes after the restart.

Daley Woods curled home a lovely free-kick for Winsford on 66 minutes but there was no way back and no wrecking of Rammy’s day as they celebrated long and hard with skipper Andrew Dawson getting his hands on the silverware.

“It’s been good for the league this season that no one has run away with it,” added Morley. “I do think the best team this season has won the league. The league table does not lie.”