Season Preview
NPL Division One East
Frickley Athletic
Frickley Athletic are back playing with the local sides having a stint in the South Division and there’s going to be some cracking games to look forward to.
The Manager
Dave Frecklington
The former Spalding United, Lincoln United and Gainsborough Trinity manager was appointed as Frickley’s boss in
Opening Five Fixtures
Hebburn Town (a), Brighouse Town (h), Sunderland RCA – FA Cup (h), Lincoln United (a), Tadcaster Albion (h).
Notable Movement
In: Lee Frecklington, Ben Bottomley (loan), Kieran Wells, Danny Burns, Martyn Woolford.
Out: Most of last season’s squad have left.
One to Watch
Kieran Wells
The predatory striker is back in the Yorkshire area and is bound to score a few goals.
Interview
Dave Frecklington is pleased with the Frickley Athletic squad he has assembled as he bids to take the club on an upward trajectory.
Frecklington is hoping to manage his first full season in the Westfield Lane dugout and he says he had a stronger side compared with last year.
“I’m happier going into this season with this group of players than I was last year,” Frecklington told Non League Yorkshire.
“That’s no disrespect to the players who played for us last year.
“I felt our recruitment last year wasn’t where it should have been at.
“A lot of factors went into that.
“We were wary of the pandemic and the financial situation off that so we were affected by that and we lost a lot of players.
“A lot of it was signing on from name and reputation which I never really do.
“We got the balance wrong and I made sure I was never going to get it wrong this year.
“Even though we had good players last year I never felt as a squad we gelled or all there for the right reasons.
“This year with the experience we have got with players who have played Conference North and players who are hungry to step-up and achieve, I feel we have a good blend and balance about the group.
“We only really had a 12 players (to choose from) last year whereas this year we have 16 or 18 players to choose from.”
Frickley were relegated to Division One of the NPL in 2016 after decades in the Premier Division.
Spencer Fearn was incredibly unfortunate not to deliver an instant return in 2017.
Since then Frickley have never come close and Frecklington is hoping a positive season.
“We want to finish as high as we can be and be super competitive,” he said.
“We want to make everyone at the football club proud of what we have put together.
“We have got good players.
“If we get off to a good start after ten games then you’re in a good position.
“I would say the expectation is to be at the right end of the table come Christmas and we can kick on from there.
“I think if we got into the play-offs it would be a massive achievement.
“We just want to improve.
“We have had a few difficult seasons at the football club and I’ve not had a full season here.
“In my last two seasons in this league (before managing Frickley) we had back-to-back play-offs campaigns with Lincoln and Spalding.
“So hopefully it’ll be third time lucky and we can kick on and get in those play-offs spots.”
Although happy with the squad, Frecklington has extensively reshaped it in recent weeks.
Various players, some who had signed and some who were on trial, were let go and Frecklington went on a signing spree.
Frecklington said felt he needed to make changes.
“Sometimes things come up that take you by surprise,” he said.
“We had players that weren’t up to the levels that we expected them to be at.
“Some didn’t fit into how we want to go about things.
“Players who had left the football club didn’t enjoy it at the clubs they had gone to.
“They wanted to come back.
“We only have player left from last year and that’s Keegan Everington.
“I came in two years ago in September and because they’d lost seven out of seven we had to rebuild the team.
“Covid came and we had to rebuild.
“Covid came (back) and we’ve had a total rebuild.
“I’ve never had a settled squad since I have been at the football club.
“This year we have recruited well.
“You need to have a core of experienced players who know what this level is about and I felt two weeks ago that some weren’t up to the levels we expected them to be at.
“I replaced them with players who I knew could live up to those expectations.”
Prediction
Mid-Table to Top Half
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams.
Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
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Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.