Baker-Richardson scores Goal of the Day

Courtney Baker-Richardson made it two in two for Newport County on Saturday.   He made a fierce drive into the top of the corner from the edge of the area.   The EFL show said it could well be goal of the day.

Former players score in the EFL

Two former Brakes players scored in the EFL on Saturday.  Courtney Baker-Richardson scored his first goal for Newport County. He fired an unstoppable right-footed shot into the top corner of the net.

Colby Bishop scored in Accrington Stanley's 2-1 win over Ipswich Town.

We made hard work of that

Leamington are through to the third qualifying round of the FA Cup after beating Stone Old Alleynians 3-1, but we made harder work of it than we should have done.

Perhaps our first minute goal made us complacent, but we were casual.  We couldn't keep possession, were second to the ball and lacked movement off the ball.   The visitors were playing football and it was no surprise when a Tomlinson header from a corner made the score 1-1.

They could have made it 2-1 but for an excellent double save from Weaver on 30 minutes.  It was difficult to tell which was the Midland League side.

Whatever Paul Holleran said at half time, we started to look a bit more threatening and eventually went ahead.   A penalty scored by Dan Turner made it 3-1.

Credit to Dan Meredith who made some good moves on the right.

'Second best all over the pitch'

I wasn't able to go to the Spennymoor Town game as I had Covid, but the video highlights looked promising.  Playing Brackley away after 48 hours was a tough test.

Yesterday therefore came as a shock.   As Paul Holleran said, we were second best all over the pitch.  Right from the off, apart from an early flurry, we had difficulty in stringing passes together and keeping the ball on the ground.  We were often second to the ball.

We did look better at the start of the second half and their goalkeeper did have to make some good saves.  But we never looked like getting back in the game.  We are now fourth from bottom, albeit with games in hand.

Transfer fees boost revenue

The annual report of the club has been released ahead of the annual general meeting on June 27th,

The loss for the year was £22,284 compared to £52,282 in 2019. The accumulated loss now stands at £64,148 up from £43,814.

Transfer fees were up from £20,000 to £62,500 without which the loss would have been much worse.

The report notes, ‘It continued to be a challenge for the club to retain our National League status whilst operating on a playing and management budget that remains substantially below the average of our competitors. It is a credit to the structure and operational stability of the club and the manager that it continues to attract players when the financial rewards for them are greater elsewhere.’

The total revenue of the club increased from £331,000 to £359,800.   The playing budget is £205,000.

The club was able to offset this loss in revenue from the suspension of the league with increased revenue from the transfer fees for Colby Bishop (to Accrington Stanley) and Josh March (to Forest Green Rovers) during the season and increased prize money due to a good FA Trophy run.

The club concluded a five year stadium naming deal with Midcounties Cooperative at £20k in the first year.

Step 2 clubs treated as second class citizens

Leamington chairman Jim Scott has backed Hemel Hempstead chairman David Boggins who has argued that Step 2 clubs are out on a limb.

A majority of Step Two clubs voted in favour of a no confidence resolution in National League chairman Brian Barwick at an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday, but they didn't carry enough weight to be successful.

Scott told The Non-League Paper: 'A lot of the clubs voted as a protest vote.  They were voting for different reasons, but they knew it was almost certain all the National League clubs wouldn't do the same - turkeys don't vote for Christmas, and the National League clubs want control.'

'At the moment we are effectively second-class citizens - we have no voting power, our votes are worthless.' He hopes that new National League general manager Mike Ives can be a catalyst for change.

'Mark is on top of that, he understands that.  He recognises there needs to be a more equitable distribution of voting power.'

'It isn't good for the National League to have the whole second tier unhappy with their input to the running of the organisation.  It's very important to see if we can do a reset and get a more equitable governance of the league.'

'My view is that Mark Ives will form some sort of working group that looks to address some of the concerns of Step 2 clubs.'

Holleran interview

Paul Holleran is now one of the longest serving managers in English football.  He has had a couple of interesting offers, but everything fits at Leamington.   The most difficult period was when we were relegated from the National League North and then lost in the play offs at Hungerford: https://francismorrisbcu.wordpress.com/2021/04/18/twelve-years-and-counting-for-paul-holleran/