A new look, gaffer and direction for Skem after turbulent two years
Thu 8th August 2024 | Skelmersdale United | By Jay Cooper
The context of recent history is key to this story, and that context is that it has undeniably been a rollercoaster of a couple of years to be a fan of Skelmersdale United. In the 2021/22 season, life could not have been better from a football perspective for the team then playing at the JMO Sports Park. In the NWCFL Premier Division, Skem were the only team that season who could hold a candle to newly minted phoenix club Macclesfield FC, and topped the table for a good handful of weeks in their back and forth with the Silkmen for the league title.
In the end, they would have to settle for a second-placed finish and, as was the league format at the time, they were drawn against Cinderford Town in an inter-step play-off match for the chance to earn promotion to the NPL Division One West. Despite a near-300-mile round trip for the game, Skem made earning their promotion look easy, smashing Cinderford 5-1 and clinching a spot in Step 4 of the non-league system for 2022/23.
And the ensuing 2022/23 season certainly had its high points for the club. Whilst Macclesfield inevitably smashed the league to earn a second successive promotion with all their backing and name value, Skelmersdale United held their own during their step up. They eventually finished 11th in the table, and striker Elliot Morris finished as the joint-second highest scorer in the division.
They were one of 9 teams to finish within a 6-point margin of one another that saw the best of these teams finish 9th in the table, and the worst be condemned to relegation. Or so it should have been. Widnes were initially the team that were pegged to be involved in an inter-step play off, and, if they’d lost, they’d have been forced to drop down a division alongside Glossop North End, Colne and Ramsbottom United.
However, standard procedure tests were conducted on all clubs’ pitches before the season had begun, and these tests would signal the forthcoming doom of Skelmersdale in the Northern Premier League. The JMO Sports Park, where Skem had plied their trade in their promotion campaign the year before, had failed a ‘bounce test’. For those who don’t know, a bounce test is officially called a ball rebound test. A ball is bounced on the proposed surface for the pitch (sometimes both on the pitch itself and using a sample of the pitch in a testing facility), and it must bounce up to a suitable height to be deemed as fair to play on.
Given that JMO was apparently not up to scratch with its pitch bounciness, Skelmersdale exhausted many options before eventually agreeing to a groundshare deal with Burscough FC, still in the NWCFL Premier Division at the time, and still there to this day. However, after a season of both teams taking to the same field for months on end, by the time 2023/24 rolled around, another mandatory surface test would see Burscough’s home, The Community Ground, be graded as suitable for Step 5 football, but not for Step 4.
With no other options for a place to play their home games readily available (not for a lack of trying to find one), Skem were forced into voluntary relegation back to Step 5 for 2023/24, and Widnes were spared a relegation play-off. Instead, Glossop North End were given a chance to save themselves in a match against Ashington AFC, but were beaten 3-0. This meant that all 4 teams relegated from the NPL Division One West in 2022/23 would go on to compete in the NWCFL Premier Division the next season.
As is expected in the off-season of non-league football, there is often a raft of new faces that come into a club, and some old bodies, no matter how tenured, tend to leave. But no one at Skem could have prepared for what was essentially an entire team exodus, manager and management staff included, as well as half of the existing board at the club deciding that now was a good time to step away.
To fill the holes that had now formed in the ship – specifically the chairperson-shaped one - former chairman of the club before his departure in 2011 Frank Hughes was convinced to re-take his old place at the club. I spoke to him earlier this week about this particular decision that he had made to return.
“Gordon Johnson, who was chairman at the time, approached me and said that ‘half the board have left, we've lost our manager - we need a little bit of guidance. I've only done 12 months of the job. I need a little bit of help.’ So, I said I'll come and help, and I'll go under the radar. But the thing with me is that I don't do things by halves.
“Eventually, it was agreed that Gordon would step to one side, and that I would take the hot seat, because I was talking to potential investors and stakeholders and what have you, to get the club back on an even keel. So that's where it started. I came back; Gordon's an old friend, and he needed my help. So, I came back in. Like I said, I wanted to come in under the radar and help out. But being a 110% kind of guy, I had to come back in as chairman eventually.”
So, chairman – tick. What about a manager? The initial decision was that Matt Potter, a man with NWCFL experience, was the correct man to guide the club through these very choppy waters, but it didn’t take long for both parties to realise that this wasn’t the case. It would only be October when Potter would leave the club, and this is what would lead to one of the more newsworthy elements of the entire NWCFL from 2023/24 – Skembonda.
Pascal Chimbonda – a former Tottenham Hotspur and Wigan Athletic defender in the Premier League, and a one-time France International – had never managed a senior first team at any level of football prior to being appointed as Skelmersdale manager early in the 2023/24 campaign. The decision to hire him was a passion-based one, according to Frank Hughes.
“Well, first of all, he realised that we were in a little bit of trouble on the field, and he let us know that he was interested in the job because he felt as though he could resurrect the situation that we were in. Gordon (Johnson) knew Pascal before I did, because he played for Ashton Town for four games, and Gordon was vice chairman at the time. He kept getting in touch with Gordon, and then he started contacting me.
“As I say, the results didn't go well with Matt. When a decision was about to be made about that, we met with Pascal and had a conversation… …and I just saw a very passionate man that wanted to show what he’s capable of when it came to the football club. And I was pleased to give him that opportunity.
“A lot of people said at the time, that it was just a press stunt, or it was a publicity stunt, and it really wasn't. It was that Pascal was interested in the job, he approached us, we spoke to him, and I saw the passion he had.
“But, I'm not daft enough to think that there wouldn’t be a bit of publicity. But I didn't expect anywhere near what we had. I think by the end of the season, the impressions that we created on social media exceeded 10 million views and clicks, which is a lot of publicity to bring to a football club. Publicity is good in any way shape or form, but unfortunately it didn't work out with our results again.”
It certainly did garner plenty of mainstream attention, with BBC Sport, the Daily Mail, and even The New York Times releasing articles upon the retired centre-back’s hiring. Memorable moments (not necessarily for the right reasons) included a touchline scuffle featuring Chimbonda during his debut match as manager, for which he was given a ban; a 6-0 defeat to Colne, during which he was caught swearing at his players over 70 times during a half-time rant; and even a 10-1 defeat to Bury FC in the league, after which he issued a public apology to supporters.
In the end, what this would all lead to was Skelmersdale United finishing the season under Chimbonda in the same fashion that his tenure as manager had started in – the club were bottom of the NWCFL Premier Division, and would suffer a second consecutive relegation. With that, the decision was made to cut Chimbonda loose.
So, what came next? This is the part of this write-up where we’ve reached the present day, and Skelmersdale United are getting to grips with life in the NWCFL First Division North under new manager Tommy Lawrence, in his 3rd stint at the club.
The decision to hire Tommy back to the club was almost done for the opposite reason as those that prompted Chimbonda’s hiring. To hear chairman Hughes put it, “His second stint here made him the most successful manager in modern times (at Skem). He's a friend of mine, he was the first appointment I made as chairman of Skem during my first tenure as chairman. So, it seemed that it was a good time to bring Tommy Lawson back to the club because one thing that Tommy and I both have in common is our love for Skem United football club. And it just made so much sense.”
The changes don’t stop there, though. What prompted this whole conversation piece with Frank and with Skem United at this time was actually a recent change they’ve made not to personnel but to their presentation. Only last week at the time of writing was it announced that the crest associated with the club since the 1980’s would be changed in favour of a more blue, more minimalist number that fits in quite well amongst modern club logo designs; and a blue shirt with a centre crest, as opposed to having it off to the side – a design similar to what one might see on a visit to the Etihad Stadium, as an example off the top of my head.
When I asked Frank Hughes about this decision, he explained that the story behind the new look originated with “Dan Sanderson, who was the founder/owner of Mundial Magazine. It’s basically a football fashion magazine, and he came in with an ambition to change the look of Skem. The old crest was fairly dated, and not a lot of people understood what it was about; be it the unicorn, or the other elements – it just went over some people’s heads.
“The new crest is meant to represent the Beacon, which is a monument in Skelmersdale. We also took the mining tools out, and put them on the neck of the home shirt. The away shirt is red, and is patterned after the rose – the red rose of Lancashire. It’s about taking elements out of there and changing the kits - for example, the black socks on the home kit are to represent the earth, and the white is to resemble a rebirth, and the blue is for the New Town blue of Skem.”
The big question, then – how has all of this translated onto the pitch? A club having to restabilise itself after over two years of chopping and changing is not something that can be done overnight. It’s been a tough start to life in the First Division North for Skelmersdale United, and shouldering the load in the absence of manager Tommy Lawson at the time of writing is assistant manager Andy Gray, who was also kind enough to speak to me earlier this week.
“Me and Tommy have been involved in football together for a long time – I played in Tommy’s teams; I’ve been an assistant manager to him at a lot of clubs. And I’m a Skem lad, I want to get the best for Skem United, but unfortunately that’s not happening at the moment. But we’ve got to keep going, and that the reason why (I joined the club) really – to come and help out… …I want to do my best for Skem.
“We’ve only been here 7 weeks or so, from the 22nd of June. To have essentially no team (when we started), to be able to put players out on the pitch has been a hard process, to be honest. We’ve had some good lads come in, and then, for whatever reason – they can’t play because they’re working shifts – we’ve had numerous situations (when we can’t play our best players). Even today (0-5 v Maghull), two of them made their debut, and there were two from Saturday’s game who didn’t play today.
“We want to get the team right, collectively. To get out and recruit the players like we have, and then get them settled into a formation that we can play to. We’re also hopeful that we can pick up a good player and move them on, given that there’s no money for the players at this moment in time. And we understand that (is a factor). The lads put in a good performance against Ashton Athletic, got beat 1-0 but we worked really hard, but we were just unfortunate today (v Maghull). It’s took the wind out of our sails.”
What’s so important right now for Skelmersdale United is that the ship is still on the surface. After two years of uncertainty, being uprooted from their home town by a lack of viable options and more new and re-emerging old faces than you can shake a stick at, the hope for stability and consistency at the club is still there. Both inside and out. And if they find it this season, then it’s a foundation for what comes next – and we saw merely 3 years ago that this club has the capabilities to climb.
One of the takeaway quotes from speaking to Frank Hughes earlier this week was that “we were far too successful on the pitch when our infrastructure wasn’t as sound and structured as it should have been. (We want) a steady increase in success, in line with a more structured, balanced foundation for the club. It’s got to work in tandem, and we can’t grow too quick.” It’s a thought process that’s hard to disagree with, that Skelmersdale United maybe bit off more than they could chew with recent successes, but if they can build from a strong backing then we might very well see them return to old habits very soon.
A new look, gaffer and direction for Skem after turbulent two years
Thu 8th August 2024 | Skelmersdale United
By Jay Cooper
The context of recent history is key to this story, and that context is that it has undeniably been a rollercoaster of a couple of years to be a fan of Skelmersdale United. In the 2021/22 season, life could not have been better from a football perspective for the team then playing at the JMO Sports Park. In the NWCFL Premier Division, Skem were the only team that season who could hold a candle to newly minted phoenix club Macclesfield FC, and topped the table for a good handful of weeks in their back and forth with the Silkmen for the league title.
In the end, they would have to settle for a second-placed finish and, as was the league format at the time, they were drawn against Cinderford Town in an inter-step play-off match for the chance to earn promotion to the NPL Division One West. Despite a near-300-mile round trip for the game, Skem made earning their promotion look easy, smashing Cinderford 5-1 and clinching a spot in Step 4 of the non-league system for 2022/23.
And the ensuing 2022/23 season certainly had its high points for the club. Whilst Macclesfield inevitably smashed the league to earn a second successive promotion with all their backing and name value, Skelmersdale United held their own during their step up. They eventually finished 11th in the table, and striker Elliot Morris finished as the joint-second highest scorer in the division.
They were one of 9 teams to finish within a 6-point margin of one another that saw the best of these teams finish 9th in the table, and the worst be condemned to relegation. Or so it should have been. Widnes were initially the team that were pegged to be involved in an inter-step play off, and, if they’d lost, they’d have been forced to drop down a division alongside Glossop North End, Colne and Ramsbottom United.
However, standard procedure tests were conducted on all clubs’ pitches before the season had begun, and these tests would signal the forthcoming doom of Skelmersdale in the Northern Premier League. The JMO Sports Park, where Skem had plied their trade in their promotion campaign the year before, had failed a ‘bounce test’. For those who don’t know, a bounce test is officially called a ball rebound test. A ball is bounced on the proposed surface for the pitch (sometimes both on the pitch itself and using a sample of the pitch in a testing facility), and it must bounce up to a suitable height to be deemed as fair to play on.
Given that JMO was apparently not up to scratch with its pitch bounciness, Skelmersdale exhausted many options before eventually agreeing to a groundshare deal with Burscough FC, still in the NWCFL Premier Division at the time, and still there to this day. However, after a season of both teams taking to the same field for months on end, by the time 2023/24 rolled around, another mandatory surface test would see Burscough’s home, The Community Ground, be graded as suitable for Step 5 football, but not for Step 4.
With no other options for a place to play their home games readily available (not for a lack of trying to find one), Skem were forced into voluntary relegation back to Step 5 for 2023/24, and Widnes were spared a relegation play-off. Instead, Glossop North End were given a chance to save themselves in a match against Ashington AFC, but were beaten 3-0. This meant that all 4 teams relegated from the NPL Division One West in 2022/23 would go on to compete in the NWCFL Premier Division the next season.
As is expected in the off-season of non-league football, there is often a raft of new faces that come into a club, and some old bodies, no matter how tenured, tend to leave. But no one at Skem could have prepared for what was essentially an entire team exodus, manager and management staff included, as well as half of the existing board at the club deciding that now was a good time to step away.
To fill the holes that had now formed in the ship – specifically the chairperson-shaped one - former chairman of the club before his departure in 2011 Frank Hughes was convinced to re-take his old place at the club. I spoke to him earlier this week about this particular decision that he had made to return.
“Gordon Johnson, who was chairman at the time, approached me and said that ‘half the board have left, we've lost our manager - we need a little bit of guidance. I've only done 12 months of the job. I need a little bit of help.’ So, I said I'll come and help, and I'll go under the radar. But the thing with me is that I don't do things by halves.
“Eventually, it was agreed that Gordon would step to one side, and that I would take the hot seat, because I was talking to potential investors and stakeholders and what have you, to get the club back on an even keel. So that's where it started. I came back; Gordon's an old friend, and he needed my help. So, I came back in. Like I said, I wanted to come in under the radar and help out. But being a 110% kind of guy, I had to come back in as chairman eventually.”
So, chairman – tick. What about a manager? The initial decision was that Matt Potter, a man with NWCFL experience, was the correct man to guide the club through these very choppy waters, but it didn’t take long for both parties to realise that this wasn’t the case. It would only be October when Potter would leave the club, and this is what would lead to one of the more newsworthy elements of the entire NWCFL from 2023/24 – Skembonda.
Pascal Chimbonda – a former Tottenham Hotspur and Wigan Athletic defender in the Premier League, and a one-time France International – had never managed a senior first team at any level of football prior to being appointed as Skelmersdale manager early in the 2023/24 campaign. The decision to hire him was a passion-based one, according to Frank Hughes.
“Well, first of all, he realised that we were in a little bit of trouble on the field, and he let us know that he was interested in the job because he felt as though he could resurrect the situation that we were in. Gordon (Johnson) knew Pascal before I did, because he played for Ashton Town for four games, and Gordon was vice chairman at the time. He kept getting in touch with Gordon, and then he started contacting me.
“As I say, the results didn't go well with Matt. When a decision was about to be made about that, we met with Pascal and had a conversation… …and I just saw a very passionate man that wanted to show what he’s capable of when it came to the football club. And I was pleased to give him that opportunity.
“A lot of people said at the time, that it was just a press stunt, or it was a publicity stunt, and it really wasn't. It was that Pascal was interested in the job, he approached us, we spoke to him, and I saw the passion he had.
“But, I'm not daft enough to think that there wouldn’t be a bit of publicity. But I didn't expect anywhere near what we had. I think by the end of the season, the impressions that we created on social media exceeded 10 million views and clicks, which is a lot of publicity to bring to a football club. Publicity is good in any way shape or form, but unfortunately it didn't work out with our results again.”
It certainly did garner plenty of mainstream attention, with BBC Sport, the Daily Mail, and even The New York Times releasing articles upon the retired centre-back’s hiring. Memorable moments (not necessarily for the right reasons) included a touchline scuffle featuring Chimbonda during his debut match as manager, for which he was given a ban; a 6-0 defeat to Colne, during which he was caught swearing at his players over 70 times during a half-time rant; and even a 10-1 defeat to Bury FC in the league, after which he issued a public apology to supporters.
In the end, what this would all lead to was Skelmersdale United finishing the season under Chimbonda in the same fashion that his tenure as manager had started in – the club were bottom of the NWCFL Premier Division, and would suffer a second consecutive relegation. With that, the decision was made to cut Chimbonda loose.
So, what came next? This is the part of this write-up where we’ve reached the present day, and Skelmersdale United are getting to grips with life in the NWCFL First Division North under new manager Tommy Lawrence, in his 3rd stint at the club.
The decision to hire Tommy back to the club was almost done for the opposite reason as those that prompted Chimbonda’s hiring. To hear chairman Hughes put it, “His second stint here made him the most successful manager in modern times (at Skem). He's a friend of mine, he was the first appointment I made as chairman of Skem during my first tenure as chairman. So, it seemed that it was a good time to bring Tommy Lawson back to the club because one thing that Tommy and I both have in common is our love for Skem United football club. And it just made so much sense.”
The changes don’t stop there, though. What prompted this whole conversation piece with Frank and with Skem United at this time was actually a recent change they’ve made not to personnel but to their presentation. Only last week at the time of writing was it announced that the crest associated with the club since the 1980’s would be changed in favour of a more blue, more minimalist number that fits in quite well amongst modern club logo designs; and a blue shirt with a centre crest, as opposed to having it off to the side – a design similar to what one might see on a visit to the Etihad Stadium, as an example off the top of my head.
When I asked Frank Hughes about this decision, he explained that the story behind the new look originated with “Dan Sanderson, who was the founder/owner of Mundial Magazine. It’s basically a football fashion magazine, and he came in with an ambition to change the look of Skem. The old crest was fairly dated, and not a lot of people understood what it was about; be it the unicorn, or the other elements – it just went over some people’s heads.
“The new crest is meant to represent the Beacon, which is a monument in Skelmersdale. We also took the mining tools out, and put them on the neck of the home shirt. The away shirt is red, and is patterned after the rose – the red rose of Lancashire. It’s about taking elements out of there and changing the kits - for example, the black socks on the home kit are to represent the earth, and the white is to resemble a rebirth, and the blue is for the New Town blue of Skem.”
The big question, then – how has all of this translated onto the pitch? A club having to restabilise itself after over two years of chopping and changing is not something that can be done overnight. It’s been a tough start to life in the First Division North for Skelmersdale United, and shouldering the load in the absence of manager Tommy Lawson at the time of writing is assistant manager Andy Gray, who was also kind enough to speak to me earlier this week.
“Me and Tommy have been involved in football together for a long time – I played in Tommy’s teams; I’ve been an assistant manager to him at a lot of clubs. And I’m a Skem lad, I want to get the best for Skem United, but unfortunately that’s not happening at the moment. But we’ve got to keep going, and that the reason why (I joined the club) really – to come and help out… …I want to do my best for Skem.
“We’ve only been here 7 weeks or so, from the 22nd of June. To have essentially no team (when we started), to be able to put players out on the pitch has been a hard process, to be honest. We’ve had some good lads come in, and then, for whatever reason – they can’t play because they’re working shifts – we’ve had numerous situations (when we can’t play our best players). Even today (0-5 v Maghull), two of them made their debut, and there were two from Saturday’s game who didn’t play today.
“We want to get the team right, collectively. To get out and recruit the players like we have, and then get them settled into a formation that we can play to. We’re also hopeful that we can pick up a good player and move them on, given that there’s no money for the players at this moment in time. And we understand that (is a factor). The lads put in a good performance against Ashton Athletic, got beat 1-0 but we worked really hard, but we were just unfortunate today (v Maghull). It’s took the wind out of our sails.”
What’s so important right now for Skelmersdale United is that the ship is still on the surface. After two years of uncertainty, being uprooted from their home town by a lack of viable options and more new and re-emerging old faces than you can shake a stick at, the hope for stability and consistency at the club is still there. Both inside and out. And if they find it this season, then it’s a foundation for what comes next – and we saw merely 3 years ago that this club has the capabilities to climb.
One of the takeaway quotes from speaking to Frank Hughes earlier this week was that “we were far too successful on the pitch when our infrastructure wasn’t as sound and structured as it should have been. (We want) a steady increase in success, in line with a more structured, balanced foundation for the club. It’s got to work in tandem, and we can’t grow too quick.” It’s a thought process that’s hard to disagree with, that Skelmersdale United maybe bit off more than they could chew with recent successes, but if they can build from a strong backing then we might very well see them return to old habits very soon.
