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"It really has been a fantastic season for this club. If you have won 26 of your games and only lost seven, as this team has done, then quite simply you are the best in the league. It is also a great thing for the town. A professional football club represents its town and Scunthorpe can feel very proud at the moment.
"The chairman Steve Wharton has done an absolute excellent job here. He has given a fantastic lead and everybody has followed on to that. Three years ago we were all biting our fingernails because it looked like it was going to be Conference football for us. There is no guarantee that we would have got back - and yet here we are three years later in the Championship.
"What these lads probably don't realise at the moment is that they have left their footprints in the history of this club. And that's all you can ask of people, whoever they work for. I was still a boy not long out of short trousers when I watched the 1958 team here promoted as champions of the old Third Division North.
"Those names from that team are still remembered now - just like the players in this 2007 team will be. Forty-nine years later this team have followed in the footprints of the 1958 team - and that is something they can be very proud of.
"Let's hope next season is a very good one as well - but the reality is that it is likely to be a tough one. Three of the teams that Scunthorpe will face are those who have come down from the Premiership. There is not a lot of difference in my view between League One and League Two - but going into the Championship is a big jump.
"This is when the supporters here are going to have to show their mettle. It's great to see the ground full like it was against Carlisle - and Scunthorpe are really going to need their supporters. I can understand why supporters do not come if the club is not doing so well in League Two.
"But my message to them for next year is this. Let's be sensible about next year and when there are one or two difficult times, as I think there will be, then keep getting behind the team."
Meanwhile Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins commented :
"It has been an historic season. It has been a fantastic achievement by this set of players. Three years ago we were staring at the abyss of the Conference, now we are preparing for life in the Championship. It's a fantastic achievement for a club this size, but now is the time for a party and we're going to enjoy it.
"When Steve Torpey came off he had a good reception. He deserved it. He is a credit to himself. I have known him with a lot of injuries he has had. We have worked out together in the dark days and he is a great professional. I had already made the decision a few weeks ago that he wasn't going to be at the football club next season. And that, for me, was a sign of respect and just rewards that he could get on the field of play."