Sean McHugh named North West Conference Coach of the Year as Orrell St James reflect on memorable season

It has been a landmark campaign for Sean McHugh, who was named North West Conference Coach of the Year following a dominant regular season with Orrell St James.

McHugh guided his side to a table-topping finish in what proved to be the strongest division in the competition - securing 13 wins and a draw from 16 league fixtures. Orrell's consistency set the standard in a fiercely competitive league that ultimately produced three of the four Championship Play-Off semi-finalists.

Though their campaign came to an agonising end with a narrow 14-12 Play-Off semi-final defeat to Blackbrook, McHugh offered no excuses and was full of praise for both his opponents and his own squad:

"Blackbrook played really well, played conditions better than us, started better, their half-backs kicked better than ours," McHugh acknowledged. "I think they fully deserve the win, I have no complaints."

Despite missing up to ten regular first-team players through injury, McHugh refused to hide behind selection issues, pointing instead to the valuable experience gained by the club's younger talent:

"It's really easy to add up on about what we've got missing," he said. "We're probably nine or ten players missing today, but so is everybody else...there's no complaints, there's no excuses, we've just been beaten with a better team. The lads who've stepped up - we've had an Under-18 who's made his debut in the semi-final (Kian Lee), who's gone really well. It gives me heart because I know I can drop him in next season. We've been able to give him 20-25 minutes today, which shows us that he's ready for next year if we need him."

Reflecting on the season as a whole, McHugh highlighted that achieving their primary target, winning the inaugural North West Conference title, remains a huge source of pride:

"Overall, it's been a successful season for us because it was the inaugural North West Conference, and we went and won that, which was the main focus for the season," he explained. "For us, it was about just letting people know - people who've been saying for years we'd not compete with NCL teams - we did. We won the league, which was our focus at the start of the season."

After a marathon campaign that began back in early January, the Award-winning coach signed off by congratulating Blackbrook boss Paul Garland and praising his side's resilience.

"Blackbrook were very good and I just want to congratulate them. I'm really pleased for Blackbrook and especially Paul Garland, the coach, because they're a good group led by him. All round, it's been a really good season, but it's been a long season. We started on the 4th of January, we've finished in October. The lad are tired and we're just looking forward to time off."    

By Dave Parkinson

Photo Credit: 13 Pro-Am Community RL