{"id":565878,"date":"2026-03-26T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565878\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T15:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:44:15","slug":"football-club-promoted-to-highest-ever-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565878\/","title":{"rendered":"Football club promoted to highest ever level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A non-league football club has been promoted to its highest level in its 33-year history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Northern Premier League East Division Redcar Athletic guaranteed promotion on Wednesday night to the seventh level of the English football league system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The club&#8217;s director John Wilberforce told BBC Radio Tees he will never forget the feeling of winning promotion as the team beat Matlock Town 4-2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll be welcoming some big teams next season. I expect [Wrexham co-owner] Ryan Reynolds to be knocking on our door anytime soon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wilberforce said the Matlock match was &#8220;brilliant&#8221; and revealed: &#8220;It was a party last night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I could remember it when there were barely anybody going and there was a tiny little stand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The club grows and grows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said one of the best things with non-league football was its affordability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a community, we all enjoy each other&#8217;s company,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a more affordable treat for a family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The ambitious director said he thought the team could seek promotion again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow BBC Tees on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBCTees\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X,;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;X,&quot;}\" class=\"link \">X,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbctees\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/3yyMYUI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Nextdoor;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Nextdoor&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Nextdoor<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcneandcumbria\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Instagram&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>More on this storyRelated internet links<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A non-league football club has been promoted to its highest level in its 33-year history. Northern Premier League&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,278452,596,278453,278449,248228,278451,278450,2088,85],"class_list":["post-565878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bbc-radio-tees","tag-football","tag-john-wilberforce","tag-matlock-town","tag-non-league-football","tag-northern-premier-league","tag-redcar-athletic","tag-ryan-reynolds","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}