Blues chief targets fresh push at promotion after play-off defeat

LEEK Town chairman Jon Eeles has vowed to bounce back from his side’s play-off disappointment and plot a way to win promotion, writes

CHRIS TRAVERS.

Blues saw their hopes of moving up the Northern Premier League ladder end last Tuesday night with a 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Runcorn Linnets in the West Division play-off semi-finals.

Runcorn were 2-0 up inside four minutes at Harrison Park and Neil Baker’s Leek couldn’t recover from that nightmare opening.

But Runcorn’s joy was short-lived as they were beaten by Marine in the final at the weekend.

“The game was done at half-time,” conceded Eeles. “The players gave * themselves too much of a mountain to climb.

“It was a really poor start with the two quick goals and they did to us what we’d done to Marine the previous weekend.

“But I’m not going to lick my wounds, we now need to get over the disappointment and push on.”

There was understandable disappointment at producing such a poor performance in the semi-finals - although the season as a whole can be considered a positive one.

They have enhanced their facilities with a new playing surface, while crowds have been up over the course of the campaign.

That culminated in 1,381 supporters watching the game against Runcorn. “The fans have been with us all season,” said Eeles.

“Our average is more than 550, which is double what it was when I started eight years ago.

“And the crowd against Runcorn was the highest attendance we’ve had for about 20 years.

“We’ll be targeting an average in excess of 500 again next year and we’ve got some big challenges facing us, but I love a challenge.”

Eeles is set to sit down with boss Baker shortly to formulate plans for next season.

Official confirmation is still awaited, but it would appear that Leek will once again take their place in the West Division for 2022/23.

“Myself and Neil wanted to give ourselves a bit of time to reflect on the season before we sat down,” explained Eeles.

“We will look at next season and where we want to strengthen and how we go about it.

“It’s a disappointing end to the season, but the only guarantee of getting out of the division is if you win it. The play-offs are a lottery.

“But I will borrow a phrase from Carol Shanahan (Port Vale owner) and ‘P is for progress’ which there has been a hell of a lot of at Leek Town this season.

“You work really hard to try to get that promotion spot and it wasn’t to be.

“However, we’ll go again next time.”