’He was happy for 10 minutes but then started to talk about winning it again next year, so there’s no signs of him slowing down.’

That’s the view of St George’s winger Chris Bass Jr regarding whether or not his father Chris Sr, at 56, is likely to step down as Geordies manager any time soon after guiding his side to a record-breaking seventh successive Canada Life Premier League title.

The Saints sealed their 12th title in 14 seasons thanks to a resounding 7-0 victory over Corinthians at Ballafletcher last Saturday, thus surpassing rivals Peel’s long-standing record of six consecutive top flight championships.

Bass Jr has been in inspired form this season, shrugging off last season’s injury problems by netting 23 times so far as his side marched towards glory.

The talismanic winger is keen to stress that the record-breaking success has been a collective effort of everyone at the club: ’It’s a great achievement by everyone involved: players, coaches, committee and supporters. It’s not something we set out to do when we when won our first title, but as we got closer it gave us something to aim for.

’It’s just reward though for everyone’s drive and dedication - the lads have definitely earned it. We’ve beaten off some really good teams and rose to a lot of tough challenges.

’Who knows if our record will be beaten, Peel’s record had stood for such a long time and I’m sure people will have thought that would would never be beaten but it has and it may well be beaten again in the future.

’We’re certainly already thinking about number eight. It might be with a different-looking team as this team is aging and other commitments may play a part in that, but we have a lot of good young lads coming through that are more than capable of stepping up, as they’ve shown this season.

’Senior’s reaction was the same as all the other times we’ve won anything: he was happy for 10 minutes but then started to talk about winning it again next year so there’s no signs of him slowing down.

’I know he would like to break all the records if possible. That’s the sort of passion and drive that has rubbed off on all the players that have played for us over the years and all the coaches we’ve had. It’s not hard to see why we’ve been successful. All credit has to go to him and his coaches.’

Frank Jones was equally full of praise for everyone involved in the running of the club, and also paid tribute to the Saints faithful fans.

The Geordies captain commented: ’It’s a great achievement for everyone involved in the club to win the seventh title in a row and beat Peel’s record which has been held for 40 years. I think it’s going to be hard to beat, well for a while anyway.

’I have been involved in all seven titles and saw how much hard work, commitment and also luck it takes to win two titles in a row, never mind seven. From the club committee, management, coaching staff, players’ commitment and also family support.

’As captain I would like to thank everyone at the club, all sponsors, fans that stand and watch us every week and also all families for supporting everyone involved in the club.

’A big thank you from myself and all the players to each ff you for all the support.

’Going forward we now turn to the FA Cup but I know that, come the summer, whatever happens the rest of this season Bass Sr will be onto us to keep making history and extend our record to eight league titles and eight Railway Cups.

’He wants us to keep making the records harder and harder to beat. He drives us forward each week to just smash every record we can and make history.’