Armthorpe Welfare boss: '˜Clubs are throwing ridiculous amounts of money at players'

Welfare finished 16th in Division One following last year’s relegation from the Premier Division.

The Church Street club had hoped to be pushing for an instant return to the top flight but struggled for consistency.

Carmody says rival clubs are throwing ‘ridiculous’ amounts of money at players in an attempt to get out of the league.

“If I’m honest, for one reason or another we haven’t quite hit the heights we thought we could,” said Carmody.

“We started the season with some very tough opening games against sides we knew would be spending fortunes trying to get out of the league.

“We settled into a little bit of a rhythm after a few games and went on an up and down run, winning a few games then losing one.

“It’s that inconsistency that has really hampered us this season.

“That said, we are looking at building something over a few seasons and giving young hungry players the opportunity to play at this level so nothing was ever going to happen overnight.”

He added: “We know it’s very hard to complete financially at this level at the minute when clubs are throwing what I think is ridiculous amounts of money at players and from what I’ve seen can never be sustained for very long.

“We chose to do things differently and build from within.

“We have some very good young players around the area, as seen with the likes of Armthorpe Wolves and Armthorpe Rovers, so developing these lads among others is the right way forward for us.”

Josh O’Neill won Armthorpe’s Players’ Player of the Year award.

Steve Garner, who has just completed his sixth season at Church Street and has now made 194 appearances for the club, was named Supporters’ Player of the Year.

Physio Elly Kirk is leaving Welfare to take up a post at Rotherham United.