Rookie coach Mark Butterill was happy to be the bride rather than the bridesmaid after Bramley Buffaloes collected the Co-Op Conference National title at the end of his first season in charge.
* Click here to sign up to free news and sport email alerts from Bramley Today.Bramley had lost successive finals before the 38-22 win over Huddersfield Underbank Rangers and Butterill – the competition's coach of the year – felt they had "got the monkey off our backs."
* Click here to become a fan of Bramley Today on Facebook.He said: "It has put the bridesmaid's tag to rest. It is a good way to end my first season as coach.
* Click here for latest Bramley news."This year has been nice, above expectations. Everything has fallen into place and that's how it goes sometimes in coaching.
"I am also mindful that next year if we have three or four bad results I will be the worst coach in the world."
Butterill saluted a "fantastic" performance from Man of the Match, stand-off Paul Drake, pictured left.
That award made up for missing out on the Conference player of the year honour, according to Drake.
"It is a massive achievement to be voted the best player on the pitch," said Drake.
"I didn't get the player of the year, so I went out to have a good performance and luckily I did that."
It was Drake's fifth final and only his second win. He added: "It has been a long time coming and we are going to enjoy it.
"We started well, but then we had a blip and struggled a bit, but we got back on track."
