Ingles to leave Shepshed ‘in order to progress’
INGLES FC has announced it is leaving Shepshed and moving to Homestead Road in Thringstone.
The club has signed a long term lease agreement with Thringstone Miners Social Centre to make the football ground at Homestead Road the club’s new home for the foreseeable future.
A statement on the club’s website said: “Ever since the club gained promotion from the old North Leicestershire League in 2014 we have been looking for somewhere in Shepshed to allow the club to play step 6 and 7 football in the non league system.
“Our current ground at Little Haw Lane is unfortunately not able to be developed to the level that we require for both 1st and reserve teams and after extensive searches around Shepshed, speaking with land owners and the local school it hasn’t been possible to find a suitable area to develop a ground on. Most unused land has been allocated for housing and with very little thought or plan for developing sport facilities in the town.
“For the last eight seasons our 1st team has ground shared with Shepshed Dynamo FC. We can’t thank Shepshed Dynamo and Mick Sloan enough for their help and support over the years but in order for the club to progress we need to be able to have our own ground that both sides play from.
“Thringstone is an ideal opportunity as its only five minutes down the road from Shepshed and has all the core facilities in place for us to develop further. This includes a bar and clubhouse area, car parking, changing rooms, floodlights, stand and a pitch that after a minor adjustment will be suitable for step 6 football.
“We want to thank the Thringstone Social Centre committee for their help in getting this agreed and look forward to working with them in making the ground a fantastic place to play and watch football for the foreseeable future. We hope this move will encourage people of Thringstone to come and watch and support the club as we are keen to develop strong links with the local community.”
Chairman Adam Smith said: “While moving away from Shepshed is a shame we feel as a club that having our own ground where both teams can play at the same location and be able to generate our own income to remain sustainable, instead of solely relying on sponsors is a massive bonus.
“After all of the good work to get the club to this level in the last 10 years it would be a massive shame to have to slip back down to our old level due to not having the right facilities and ground sharing could never be something we did forever.
“We look forward to developing the ground over the coming months and hope to be in a position to begin using the ground for both mens teams games ready for next season. Current season games will run as normal at Little Haw Lane and the Dovecote.
“The clubs junior teams will continue to play in Shepshed at Little Haw Lane as normal however the move will give us the option of having an under 18s floodlit league team in the coming seasons.”