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Tonbridge manager Steve McKimm made sure his players took centre stage after clinching promotion.
McKimm stood back as his squad celebrated on the pitch with hundreds of travelling Angels fans after the 3-2 play-off win at Met Police.
Angels are looking forward to National South football for the first time since 2014 following their super final success and, for McKimm, it was all about the players.
He said: “It’s taken a long, hard five years of work and everything behind the scenes with the chairman, the board, even the supporters.
“You go through good times and bad times but we’ve now given them something to cheer about.
“Those scenes on the pitch afterwards, I stood back and watched it happen.
“I got involved a little bit at the start but I stood back and watched how much it meant to all those fans and how much it meant to those players.
“I might not be in any of the photos but that doesn’t matter to me, because they’re the stars of the show and they’re the ones that need to get the pats on the back.
“I’m just so elated to watch them celebrate like that. It’s fantastic.”
It’s well-documented that McKimm almost quit Tonbridge at Christmas.
Several months later, he’s celebrating his first honour in management.
He said: “I could have left but it comes down to a good family behind you, a good board and a magnificent set of players that weren’t interested and weren’t going to buy in to me leaving.
“It could have been different but when you’ve got people behind you that believe in you and trust you and want you to do well, that speaks volumes and you’ve got to stick with it because you know they’re sincere with that.
“When you play you want to win things, and I’ve won some trophies.
“When you manage you don’t get that opportunity as much because you’re either out the door after six months or you’ve got a team that’s middle of the road.
“But when you actually get something like we’ve done now and gone to the level, with the teams that are going to be in that league next year, it’s unbelievable.
“It’s my proudest moment as a coach and a manager.
“I’m just over the moon with those players and what they’ve done.
“It’s a massive achievement - massive."
Arthur Lee and D’Sean Theobalds struck as Tonbridge twice fought back from a goal down before clinching victory with Tom Derry’s extra-time header.
McKimm felt for Met Police, again criticising this season’s super play-off format, but it was Tonbridge’s day.
The Angels boss was on the pitch after Theobalds’ late equaliser in normal time, making a long dash from his dugout.
He said: “I thought my knee was going to give way!
“That’s what it does, the emotion takes over.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have done it but those times don’t come back again and I’m so happy.
“You know you’re coming to the end and you think you’ve worked this hard and could be missing out on promotion and then D’Sean scores and everything comes out, the relief, because you don’t want to let people down.
“I’m someone who doesn’t want to let people down and it hurts me when we do and I take the brunt of it.
“I don’t like players taking the brunt of it, so I’d have taken the brunt if we’d lost that 2-1 today.
“After D’Sean scored I felt we had the upper hand in terms of we were throwing balls in their box.
“I didn’t want a game of us attack, they attack, and after we scored our first that’s what happened and they got back in front straight away.
“But when we scored that goal from D’Sean, a few of their bodies looked tired and that’s testament to my players and how fit they were.”
