I'VE HAD MY MANAGER'S HEAD ON FOR TEN YEARS

IF ANY Runcorn Linnets player needs a bit of advice in the coming season, they only need to seek out the club's new manager Antony Kay.

- JOHN LYONS

The 41-year-old defender has enjoyed a 25-year playing career, the vast majority of it in the Football League. He's played more than 800 games and won three promotions in the EFL.

It's fair to say he's been there, seen it and done it in an extraordinary career that began with home-town club Barnsley and then took in further Football League stops at Tranmere, Huddersfield, MK Dons, Bury and Port Vale.

He briefly dipped his toe into NonLeague with Chorley in Covid times before serving Welsh side Bala Town.

Last summer, aged 40, he pitched up at the Linnets to play under another ex-pro in Billy Paynter. Any thoughts he was there to wind down were dismissed as he notched up 41 appearances for the club in all competitions, chipping in with four goals.

However, it wasn't to be a season with a happy ending as the NPL West runners-up were bounced out of the play-offs at the semi-final stage by fifth-placed City of Liverpool. With stepPaynter ping down in the aftermath, the club turned to Kay to take the reins - and he didn't need much persuading.

"It was pretty simple in my mind," he told The NLP. "I'm getting a bit older now and I've had a manager's head on for quite a while. It's been since I was 31 or 32, so nearly ten years.

"I have had opportunities in academies, but I felt I wanted to be a manager. When this job arose, I thought 'Why not? It's a great opportunity'. Hopefully I can take it with both hands."

It's all a world away from when Kay, then just 17, made his Football League debut for Barnsley in the second tier back in August 2000.