James Piercy captained Beverley Town to the NCEL Premier Division playoff final, where the East Yorkshire side secured promotion to the Northern Premier League – East.

The promotion comes four years into Piercy’s time at the club, which has seen him already amass over 150 appearances for the Beavers.

On gaining promotion ahead of the 2026/27 season, Piercy said: “To be honest, I still don’t think it’s sunk in what we’ve probably achieved as a club over the last four years. Obviously the pure emotion straight after is everyone is just buzzing, and it’s just pure joy, but I still don’t think it’s sunk in just what the club have actually achieved.”

“Going from amateur football as a club four years ago to now being in the Northern Premier League next year is quite an achievement. I think what’s been good about it with us is the fact that we’ve had probably the majority of the group together for the whole time, and it just goes to show that if you have a bit of consistency and continuity in your squad, it can go a long way.”

Beverley Town began their playoff run with a match against local rivals Barton Town, and after a McCauley Snelgrove penalty, they booked their place in the playoff final with a 1-0 victory in the Humber derby.

The play-off final saw the Beavers come up against Tadcaster Albion, whom they saw off 2-1, after goals from Glen Sani and Luka Suluburic, to secure the win and promotion in Beverley’s third straight play-off final.

On Beverley’s playoff run, Piercy said: "[The semi-final] gave us lots of confidence; to be honest, Barton is a close rival of ours, so going into the playoffs it was probably a game we didn’t want. I do think we had a better squad than them, but going into a derby game, anything can happen, and the playoffs added on top make it even more cagey.”

“Knowing they hadn’t scored a goal against us all season, and they didn’t have a shot on target in the semi-final, that filled us with great confidence going into the final, and I think the clean sheet was probably more important than anything else going into the final.”

“[In the final this season] there was a bit more pressure on us; we’d finished second in the league, and everyone was then looking at us to set the tempo and put our foot down. So going into the final, that was what we wanted to do, and to be honest, I’ve never felt more comfortable, as much as Tadcaster are a great side and I think they’ve got a great manager, but I think their first shot on target was their goal with five minutes to go, and we should have been out of sight.”

“We should have been three or four nil up at that point, but again, it’s a playoff final, and these things happen, but to get over the line, especially after last year’s disappointment, and for Glen, our winger who missed quite a decisive penalty last season in the playoff final, to then get that goal that sent us up was a great moment for him.”

Piercy played a major part in Beverley’s season, as the captain featured 40 times for the East Yorkshire club in the 2025/26 season’s cups and league games.

The Beavers finished second in the NCEL Premier Division, behind only Liversedge, after they won 23 of their 38 league matches and lost only nine games all season.

On the club’s 2025/26 season, Piercy said: “We started probably the worst out of anyone in the league. I think after five or six games we were wondering what was going on, and then we just found our rhythm a little bit, and again it’s just all about consistency. We always seem to have a good period over the Christmas period; I don’t know why that is, but we seem to find our form, and then we just maintain those standards throughout.”

“Probably this season more than most, I think it showed character to come from where we were after the first six or seven games. There were many teams that would have probably folded at that point; players might have become disheartened and left and gone elsewhere, but we all stuck together, and we all knew exactly what we could achieve, and that came to fruition at the end of the season.”

Next season will see the team compete at the highest level in the club’s history after securing promotion to the Northern Premier League – East.

Their promotion will see the team play against the likes of Hallam FC, Bridlington Town and North Ferriby alongside other teams from around Yorkshire and surrounding areas.
On what the promotion means to the club, Piercy said: “It’s a great honour, and I feel really proud of what I have achieved and what the group has achieved. I think when I signed four years ago, Beverley was moving out of the Humber Premier, and they were going into the NCEL Division One, and when I was speaking to the gaffer, David Ricardo, there was always that vision of where it could go.”

“We also said that Bev was a sleeping giant in the local area in terms of the fan base that it could attract, and as soon as we had a little bit of success, we knew the town would jump on board, and I suppose we didn’t actually quite expect the fans that we have got.”

“So just a little thank you for the support all year, and that’s throughout non-league, home and away. I started playing non-league 12 years ago, and at times we were getting about 20 fans down to a ground, and now you’re looking at 500 or 600 and going into the thousands now, so it’s crazy, and I think generally the support for non-league is just ridiculous, and it’s great to see.”

Beverley Town will now become one of the newest clubs in the eighth level of the English football league system as the 2026/27 Northern Premier League – East gets underway in August this year.