Baker: Leek will be ready to go again when season starts

LEEK Town boss Neil Baker says his players can look back with huge pride on their 2019/20 season.

Baker’s side were top of the Betvictor League, South East Division, when football was suspended in mid-march and were bitterly disappointed the campaign was then declared null and void rather than be settled on points per game with 28 matches already played.

The manager expects a planned reorganisation of the divisions to be put on hold, and also believes he will go into a new campaign with the majority of the players who led the club to the top of the table.

He said: “That is my hope and what I think will happen.

“I am in touch with all the players. I have spoken to them two or three times during lockdown, and the staff as well.

“I don’t think there will be a big turnaround, or certainly not as big as there was last year.”

Baker expects rivals to be stronger next season, whenever that begins, but is hopeful his side will be stronger too.

But he says they should also retain the character which was evident throughout the season.

He said: “No manager will say they have a poor team spirit or else it reflects on them! But we like to think we are a close-knit team.

“The reason I knew we had a good team spirit is everyone attended training and, when I gave them nights off, they didn’t want them.

“Also, it is always a good sign if you see them come back and rescue draws from defeats and wins from draws. We could come back in games where we hadn’t always played as well as we would have liked.

“That was fairly evident against Ilkeston early on where we got pulverised for 20 minutes, we were 1-0 down and could have gone three or four down, but stayed in the game and won it 2-1.”

Leek don’t yet know when they will be able to return for training, or when the next season could start.

But while the coronavirus crisis has meant financial problems throughout football, and society as a whole, he says Leek, led by chairman Jon Eeles and vice-chairman Paul Bateman, are in a fortunate position.

He added: “It is a well-run club. I sit on the board as well so I know what goes on.

“Jon Eeles and Paul Bateman are good at what they do.

“I am always asking them for a bit more money, as all managers do, and they will tell me yes or no.

“We pay within our means, our gates have been excellent over the last two years and we have done well on sponsorship, so they have managed the interests of the club very well.

“That is why we don’t face financial problems and that is a credit to them.”

The manager says the club is also quite right to include the campaign in its own records, even though results have been expunged by the league and the FA.

So, as far as the club is concerned, statistics, such as Tim Grice moving to 199 goals for the club, remain.

The manager, pictured, added: “Those games were played, those goals were scored and those points were won and lost. So, as far as the club’s history goes they have to stand, whether that is Tim Grice, or the fact we only conceded 19 goals in 28 games.

“That is a remarkable statistic at any level of football and all members of the team, not just goalscorers, take pride in that and should be remembered.

“Our fans have travelled all over, spent a lot of money, and also how would you regard it as a sponsor? What if you had put money into Leek and the FA say the season didn’t exist, you might be less likely to do it again.”