Letter From The Manager - Richard Kay

SOUTHAM UNITED4

richard kayLETTER FROM THE MANAGER

I would like to welcome the players, staff and committee of Launton to Bobby Hancocks Park

for today’s OSL Prem match day.

It seems like a long time ago that we traveled to Launton for our first OSL game of the season. It was one of our toughest games of the season, against strong opposition.

It was a hard earned, 2-nil away win back in September, but for long periods the game was in the balance until we scored the second goal very

late on. Launton are having a very good season and are in the top 4 of the OSL Prem for a reason. On their day they have shown they can beat anyone and are one of the best sides in the division.

Last week’s game was yet another clean sheet and again, a very solid performance. It was one of those games that if we played ten times, nine times out of ten we win by 3 or 4. Again, we can only look back on some missed golden chances in front of goal. Known in football as sitters.

The Cropredy goalkeeper was fantastic on the day, but we lacked the quality and patience in the final third to really turn our complete dominance in terms of possession into goals. Defensively, again, we were excellent and have been for weeks.

Not taking chances costs you as much as bad defending. We are creating a bucketload of chances so I’m not concerned. If we convert a percentage of these chances we will make life much easier for ourselves.

It was great to get the point and confirm mathematically a top 5 league position and eligibility for promotion to Hellenic 1 and step 6 of the NLS. Since the re-launch in 2019 it has been a long journey with a global pandemic thrown in to take the club full circle back to step 6 where the first team

folded 6 years ago.

I’m never interested in outside noise or opinion, especially on social media, but some of the things I have read is embarrassing.

Firstly, we are not celebrating a top 5 finish. We have clearly stated that we are ELIGIBLE for promotion after securing at least a top 5 finish. As things stand we currently sit in third position, and are in the mix to try and finish runners up.

As a manager, staff and squad of players our aim is to finish as high in the league table as possible.

There is not a first team in the country that deserves promotion back to step 6 more. Over the last three years we were 15 points clear at the top in Hellenic 2 and lost out on the club’s first league title for 40 years due to the pandemic.

We now currently sit third in the OSL. We have played 58 competitive games in all competitions against a range of clubs from step 5 to 8, won 41 games, lost 13 and drawn 4 over the course of nearly 3 years. We are closing in on scoring nearly 200 goals in not even two full seasons. We have broke every first team record going on the pitch. Promotion back to step 6 is the least we deserve. The place is buzzing. We are one big family. I’m so proud and happy for everyone associated with the club. It’s been one hell of a journey but there are many more pages to be written.

UTS

Richard Kay