Town blow as defensive duo depart Long-serving James and recent addition Thompson leave
RUNCORN Town have lost the services of two key defenders after Marcus James and David Thompson departed the club this week.
James left the club to join Vauxhall Motors.
Marcus signed from West Cheshire League side Capenhurst Villa in 2016 and rarely missed a game since then.
He has been a key member of the team over the five years and was made club captain in 2020.
He was voted Manager’s player of the Year in 2017/18 and picked up the Supporters’ Player of the Year award for the 2019/20 season.
He leaves the club having made an impressive 192 appearances, scoring 11 goals.
Thompson left to club to join St Helens Town. The 30-year-old left back joined Town last month and made four appearances before deciding to make the move to Saints.
Tommo made an impression during his short time with the club and put in a man of the match performance against Congleton Town, when he also set up Ben Greenop’s late equaliser.
Town were knocked out of the FA Vase on Saturday with a 4-1 defeat at home to Pilkington.
The visitors took the lead on their first visit to the Viridor Community Stadium through a Deklan Hill goal, but Town responded immediately with a Dale Jennings penalty.
Pilkington took control of the game in the second half and extended the lead with goals from Gaz Kenny, Callum Laird and Nathan Quirk.
Meanwhile, there was better news for the club’s Under 16s, who picked up their first three points of the new Warrington League season with a 2-1 home win against Warrington Rylands Fife.
Town were pressing from the off and got their reward ten minutes into the game when a cross from the left hand side was turned in at the back post by Nathan Roberts.
On 18 minutes it was 2-0, with Lucas Ramsden scoring a beauty. He picked up the ball 25 yards out and hit an outside of the boot shot that swerved into the bottom right hand corner.
The game settled into something of a midfield battle, with goalscoring chances for both sides at a premium. Liam Hall had the best chance of the rest of the first half when he was played in oneon-one with the keeper standing up well to make a fine save.
The second half continued to be a close affair, with Rylands getting back into the game eight minutes into the half with a controversial penalty following a foul in the box that looked very soft. Rylands scored to reduce the defecit with Ben Boote seeing himself in the sin-bin for his remonstrations.
Town went close to extending the lead with a carbon copy of the first goal but this time Roberts couldn’t stretch enough to turn the ball in. Liam Hall also had a great chance after beating his man on the right, but he opted to look for a teammate when shooting was probably the better option.
Hall should have made the game safe with 12 minutes remaining when Runcorn were given a penalty after a foul on Roberts.
However the home keeper kept himself big to make a good save to deny him. Jaden Keogh also went close with a header late on that went just wide.
Rylands found themselves down to ten men following a second yellow card to one of their players as their frustrations boiled over, with Runcorn holding on for the win.
Town’s Under 15s suffered a heavy defeat at Quarry Green Scorpions. Four goals in each half saw the Kirkby based side run out easy winners as they extended their 100% home record.