Dec Walker on promotion with hometown club Warrington Town

The Penketh native spent much of his early career in Wales having started out at Wrexham before moving onto Bangor City and Aberystwyth Town, but the past two seasons have seen him return to his roots.

Having helped Warrington Rylands to the Northern Premier League West Division title last year, he has now played a key role in Warrington Town’s elevation to the National League North.

Dec Walker celebrates with Josh Seary, who spent the first half of the season on loan at Town from Preston North End (Image: Sean Walsh)

“To be a local lad and do this – it’s emotional,” said the 31-year-old right back, who played his junior football at Eagle Sports – a club his family are still actively involved in.

“It was great doing it with Rylands last year and I loved my time there, but this is just different. We want to keep dreaming and keep pushing.

“I’ve played a long way away from home in my career but coming back here and seeing how the fans have got behind the club is just so special.

“I’d been getting messages constantly throughout the week of people asking for tickets – it’s incredible to see this place sold out.

“People can sometimes forget how big a town we are – we need to have a club at this kind of level.

“You’ve got to give credit to Rylands as well – I think them coming up gave us that extra push.

“It’s great we’ve got two clubs at such a good level – we’ve obviously kicked on again now and I can’t wait for next year.”

In the past, play-off football has not been kind to Yellows nor to Walker individually, with heartbreak aplenty leading into Monday’s showdown with Bamber Bridge.

When Josh Amis was sent off 10 minutes from time, it looked as if this one may go the same way until Isaac Buckley-Ricketts popped up with a dramatic, 90th minute winner having come off the bench.

Even with the numerical disadvantage, however, Walker was confident his side would come through.

“To be honest, even with 10 men I had full faith in us keeping a clean sheet,” he said.

“I looked around the team and I thought “they’re not scoring.” If we kept that back door shut, we had faith we’d get a chance and it came.

“With the people we had on the bench, there’s players on there that could change the game if we were still in it and fortunately for us, Isaac came on and made the difference.

“For the last three or four years, the club’s lost in play-offs and it’s tough to take.

“In my career I’ve lost four play-offs and this is my first win, so to be on the right end of it is unbelievable.”