New field of dreams for Penrith
Last updated 13:43, Friday, 29 August 2008
Penrith Football Club is on target to move to a new stadium in November – and their management duo has vowed to have a winning team on the pitch.
Grass seeds have already been sewn, foundation stones have been laid and steel posts have been erected to create the main stand at their new home at Frenchfield.
They are preparing to leave their current home on Southend Road after more than 100 years and move to a purpose-built, modern stadium as part of the £80million redevelopment of Penrith town centre and hope it will enable them to fulfil their dream of reaching the Conference North.
And on the pitch, the Blues – backed by multi-millionaire Penrith-based businessman Ges Ratcliffe – are on track to carry on climbing up the non-league football pyramid.
They are sitting top of the Northern League First Division with three wins from their first four league games in their first season in the top-flight after winning the Division Two championship last season.
New joint managers James Tose and Richard Prokas, who succeeded long-serving boss Dave Heslop on the eve of the new season, are determined to keep them top of the pile and have targeted promotion to the UniBond League.
Tose, who works as Carlisle United’s football in the community officer, said: “The owner is very ambitious and wants us to get to the Conference North.
“Richard and I asked him where he wanted the club to go – and he matches our ambitions, so we hope we can achieve what we’ve set out to do.
“On Monday when we beat Northallerton 2-1 you could sense a real air of belief that we could win the game.
“There’s a really good atmosphere at the club in a short space of time – and the crowds are getting bigger as well.
“There’s a new owner, a new management team and a new ground so it’s a new platform to make sure that everything is geared to being positive and having a good work ethic on and off the pitch.
“We want to be the third biggest team in the county after Carlisle United and Barrow.”
An opening day 3-1 defeat at Consett was a far from promising start, but it did nothing to derail their ambition.
They have now notched up four straight wins, including a 7-4 win over Darwen in the FA Cup extra-preliminary round.
Tomorrow they hope to stay on the FA Cup glory trail when they host Clitheroe (3pm).
Tose, a UEFA ‘A’ Licence coach, said: “The First Division was unknown for some of the lads and we brought in some new lads who have experience of playing at higher level, like Mark Birch, Michael Reed, Alan Gray and Dean Douglas.
“We needed to get lads to believe they could play at a higher level, and they didn’t do themselves justice in the first game.
“The second half performance was better and they’ve gone on from there and been fantastic,” added Tose.
“Myself and Richard aren’t that surprised that we are top because we had great belief in the lads’ ability.
“Our philosophy is to get the ball down and play football – and try to win in style.
“Hard work will always beat skill unless skill works hard, and we have some talented lads here who have been working their socks off for each other.
“They can be proud to be part of something that’s good.
“We haven’t just won games, we’ve won them in style as we’ve played some really good football,” said Tose.
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