THREES-Y DOES IT FOR ACE JOE

WHEN a raucous rendition of 'Champions Again, Ole Ole' broke out inside Barnet's dressing room following their National League title-clinching win over Aldershot Town last month, it could not have felt more apt for Joe Grimwood.

- Russell Claydon

For the 23-year-old defender was about to lift a trophy to mark a promotion for the third season on the trot to complete a remarkable rapid rise through the Non-League pyramid.

Just three years previously, he was celebrating elevation out of Step 4 as Isthmian North play-off winners with AFC Sudbury, the club he had broken through into senior football with after graduating from their highly-regarded academy where picking up trophies had become commonplace.

The Bury St Edmunds-raised defender followed it up 12 months later with another play-off winner's medal, this time two levels higher with Braintree Town in National League South under one of his former Sudbury managers, Angelo Harrop.