Ludlow Town manager Chris Richards will consider his future after another tough season at the helm that has seen the club languish in the lower reaches of the West Midland League premier division.
Richards has been committed to the cause for the past four years but now admits it is time to weigh up his options. “The club need to take stock as I feel we’ve been treading water,” he said. “We need to look at ourselves and how best to take the club forward and there need to be a few questions and answers.
“I seem to have begged, stolen and borrowed every footballer in Shropshire over the past few seasons, and the situation needs to be looked at.
“It has been frustrating to lose players to clubs who are paying money. It would be nice to be on a level playing field, but I have never wanted to be one of those managers who goes around with brown envelopes.”
Richards says he is likely to make his decision in the next few weeks, by which time the club would have completed their league campaign.
“It may be I need a new challenge, and it could be good for the club to go in a new direction,” he added.
“The players who have turned out for me have been committed and put in a lot of hard work but the problem has been trying to get our strongest team out each week.”
Ludlow have been forced to rely on lads from university which has left the team severely depleted in holiday time.
The youth system is in good shape under Duncan Morris, but the problem facing Ludlow is attracting the older players to a club that is 30 miles out on a limb.
Ludlow have just two home games left as they look to finish on a high note, the first against Pelsall Villa tomorrow before entertaining Darlaston tomorrow week.
They will be keen to bounce back from two defeats, a 3-0 reverse at Dudley Sports last Saturday before going down 6-2 at Ledbury on Tuesday night.
“For the first time in two months I felt some of the heads dropped against Dudley but I couldn’t fault the effort and workrate against Ledbury,” added Richards.
“Ledbury had a pacy centre forward and they played to their strengths. We never coped with that in the first half and were 5-2 down.
“But we had our chances in the second half and showed we were just as good a footballing side as they were and matched them for effort and ability.”
The defence were twice caught out by brisk home raids as the visitors went 2-0 down inside 12 minutes.
A brace from Archie McIlhatton kept Town in the hunt at 3-2 down, but Ledbury soon made it 4-2 before another goal on the stroke of half time effectively settled the issue.
The visitors had several good chances after the break but were unable to close the gap before the hosts bagged the only goal of the second half to seal the win.
A few days earlier, Ludlow travelled to Dudley Sports where they lost 3-0 in a windswept affair on a bumpy pitch.
