Tuesday 21st August sees Stafford Rangers start their first home game under new manager Steve Burr. Due to spending a long weekend in the Lake District to take in our game at Workington, this preview is written before our first game and the Grantham v Bamber Bridge fixture.
If you think our summer has seen some changes, then none can compete with the events at Grantham which their chairman state that summer has been a rollercoaster. Grantham played in the Play Off final at Ashton United, but lost out on a promotion to the National League North. That brought about the immediate resignation of the manager and saw the appointment of Ian Culverhouse as the new manager, who had left Kings Lynn who also failed in the Southern League Play offs. Like ourselves such a change saw player coming and going during the summer.
Manger Ian Culverhouse is a former Norwich City and Aston Villa assistant manager following on from an 18-year playing career with Tottenham Hotspur, where he won a UEFA Cup medal, Norwich, Swindon Town and Brighton. He took his first step as a Number 1 in his own right, at Southern Premier League Side King’s Lynn Town, and his first full-year in the job saw King Lynn clock-up 100 points as they finished runners-up to Hereford FC, before losing the play-off final at home to Slough Town 2-1. One of his first tasks was to bring in a goalkeeping coach and he has secured Paul Bastok. This famous name in Non-League football has amassed 1227 appearances between the sticks and will also cover for the first team keeper. On the goalkeeping position, our former keeper Keiron Preston has left Grantham for Basford.
As beaten playoff finalists, Grantham will be looking for an immediate improvement so start as potential favourites making our task harder. So, come on down to Marston Road the cheer on the lads in what could be a very tight encounter.