Bournemouth Captain Joe Rees said his side’s promotion to National Two South had been a long time in the making.
The number eight has been at Chapel Gate for the last five seasons, and throughout that time The Lions have been assembling the tools needed to succeed.
After falling short in their promotion play-off with Guernsey last season, Rees said it had been a squad effort.
He said: “I still can’t believe it - it has still not all quite sunk in yet.
“For me it has been a long time coming because I have been down at the club for the last five years and we have been building and building and building and this year was our year.
“You can’t take it away from the boys - the effort they have put in and we used god knows how many players from the first team and the second team, and everyone has stepped up and it is full credit to all of them who have played a part in this season.”
The Chapel Gate men went into their all-important clash with fifth side Exmouth knowing anything less than a bonus-point win would not be enough.
Rees said having that pressure to reach those levels was not something his players hid from and the best way was to take the bull by the horns.
He added: “I think before we would have tried to shy away from what we needed to do and not tried to put any pressure on the game.
“But we just decided to hit it head on today and say ‘do you know what boys? We just need five points with a bonus-point win and then we have won promotion.’
“The boys really stepped up today and it was brilliant, because we were a bit edgy in the first half but as soon as we turned around at the break the boys just put their foot down and off we went in the second half.”