The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Joint player/boss Billy Radeloff stepped down from his role at Long Sutton Athletic ahead of their 1-1 draw with Oundle Town on Saturday.
Radeloff, who only joined fellow co-player/manager Matt Cawthorn at the Magpies’ helm over the summer, has resigned from his role due to personal and work commitments, while he also wants to carry on playing.
Cawthorn had help from Paul Preston and Kev Rumsey over the weekend – and admits that he’ll need support if he is to carry on in the role.
He said: “I had a conversation with Billy at training on Tuesday – and due to personal and work commitments he’s decided to step down and wants to concentrate on playing for a couple more seasons.
“So Saturday’s game saw me bring Paul Preston and Kev Rumsey in to help with match day duties, while I played.
“I’m not sure if this is long term or short term, as I still would like to play as much as form and injury allow me too. But I cannot do both without help, even in Division One.
“I would like to thank Billy for his effort and determination to pull the squad we’ve got together, but I also hope he stays at the club as a player.”
The events almost overshadowed Sutton’s match at London Road, which saw their winless start to the ChromaSport PDFL Division One season stretch to five games.
Neil White put Oundle ahead at half time, only for captain Billy Oliver to head home a second-half leveller.
The draw is Sutton’s second point of the campaign and a vast improvement to the erratic 6-4 loss at Peterborough Polonia last time out.
“After the horror show at Polonia, it was a case of some players getting comfortable wearing the shirt come Saturday afternoon.
“With work commitments and holidays, some players weren’t available so we freshened things up within our group.
“We had a young and inexperienced keeper from our under-18 side stepping up to play in goal for us and he did very well. We conceded quite early on, but we battled and tried to play some tidy football with some strong wind behind us.
“We equalised through a neat header from skipper Billy Oliver and pressed for the winner, but to no avail.
“As gaffer I need to take the positives from the game – but I was slightly disappointed with a point.
“I thought we should have won the game – and to be fair I could have had a couple.
“Someone is going to get a good hiding from us soon. We’re not playing that badly and we feel that the luck isn’t on our side.
“But the old saying is we have to make our own luck. If we keep digging in as a unit and earn the right to play we will be fine.”
Match ball sponsor: Parkside (Paul Preston).
Sat: Sutton v Netherton Res (1.30pm).
