NINE months of effort and enterprise, delight and despair, hits and misses, plaudits and criticism have ended in ecstacy and elevation for Evesham United.

Saturday was unimaginable when Dave Busst and Paul West joined forces 18 months ago in a bid to lift the club out of the doldrums.

They did such a terrific job that they had thoughts of bringing top flight football to the town last term before setting their sights on reclaiming the club's place in the Non-League Pyramid after last summer's reorganisation.

Evesham have always been on course to achieve that objective but they certainly gave their fans plenty to worry about as automatic promotion beckoned.

However, the Common Road management team will tell you that they always had faith in their charges and that faith was rewarded last weekend.

The failure to finish in the top two prompted a fabulous finale and the smiles on the faces of Busst and West at the final whistle last Saturday showed just exactly what it meant to the pair.

What it also means is more soul searching, player briefings and decision making ahead of the start of the Premier Division campaign.

Bust and West have delivered on the field thanks to the terrific efforts of the players, especially in the play-offs when they proved to everyone that they were good enough to have clinched promotion without the two extra games.

I take my hat off to them all - even though I said that I would eat it if they got promotion when they lost at Mangotsfield in January!

Now, let's hope the hard-working committee, led by chairman Jim Cockerton, can deliver off the field and end all the uncertainty among the fans by tieing up the deal to build the new stadium that Southern League officials have been promised.