TITLE-winning Dunnington are determined to ensure they don’t have to wait another 89 years for their next York Minster Engineering Football League premier division crown.

Chairman Duncan Griffiths has declared the club have to “kick on” after their 4-0 win over York St John on Saturday finally saw them pick up the trophy after several close finishes.

With the reserve team also winning their respective division, and both sides still unbeaten – ahead of last night’s fixtures – throughout the season, there is a huge feel-good factor at the Common Road venue.

But, rather than being seen as the culmination of a long journey, Griffiths sees the club’s current success as just the start.

Paying tribute to the people behind the scenes who have made the two league wins possible, including first team manager Matt Wain, he said Dunnington’s long-term plan of bringing juniors through into the first and reserve teams was paying dividends.

The club are currently in discussions with York firm Pryers Solicitors about sponsorship to allow Dunnington to continue to invest in junior football.

“It is part of the long-term plan to bring kids through into the first team. We have come close to it in the last couple of years and Matt Wain has come in and given us a professional edge,” Griffiths said.

“We are training properly and preparing properly, and it is like 28 cup finals. We have to take it seriously.

“There has been a lot of hard work in bringing juniors through into the seniors and this is the culmination of that. The first and seconds are 70 per cent made up of players who played for the junior team.

“We always set out to achieve that and 30 of them were out on Saturday night as friends and team-mates. It’s important we have the right people at the club.

“I can think of five or six clubs that are not in existence or in the premier league any more because they brought people in.”

Asked to sum up what the title victory meant to Dunnington, Griffiths added: “It’s the icing on a big cake. It’s not a celebration of winning the title in any one year as a celebration of 15 years of hard work by a lot of people who put together the pieces.

“That’s from our charter standard people to the coaches who have given up their own time to go on courses. Winning this is for the whole club.

“Good teams win titles but great teams do it on a regular basis. Next year will be testing for both teams because they are there to be shot at. We have to keep the momentum going.

“We have to kick on from here.”