Ollerton Town captain wants to see some sense from FA over league placing

The Town have been in the Northern Counties East League Division One since 2016 but since then, they have seen Teversal, Rainworth Miners Welfare, Clipstone and Shirebrook Town all move laterally to the East Midlands Counties League which also includes Sherwood Colliery.

That leaves Retford FC as Ollerton’s closest opponent with AFC Mansfield currently in the Premier Division. A rumoured restructuring of the non-league system planned for this summer looked set to address the situation a little but that has now been postponed for a season with Stretton hoping that once the restructuring takes place, Ollerton will be one of the sides who benefit.

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“I want the FA to use their heads about which teams are in which league,” said Stretton. “I was hoping a potential league restructure would help this but then Coronavirus came along so we’ll have to see what happens.

“Derby games are the best games,” he continued. “It seems odd that teams like Clipstone, Rainworth and Shirebrook are so close yet we don’t play them.

“Gav King’s late winner against Shirebrook a couple of seasons ago are the sort of moments you want.”

Stretton knows one or two things about local derbies having played against Ollerton for Thoresby several times before the Edwinstowe-based side folded in 2015.

“I guess I wouldn’t have ever thought of being Ollerton captain at the time with the old local rivalry,” Stretton reflected.

“I loved playing for Thoresby until it kind of died out but Ollerton was just around the corner and I liked the idea that we could get promoted out of the Central Midlands League if we had a good enough season. We managed that and yeah, here we are and I’m attached to the club.”

Ollerton were 16th when the season came to a premature end and Stretton was frustrated with his side’s performance overall.

“On our day we can be brilliant but our Achilles heel has always been consistency,” the secondary school teacher claimed.

“It was another Ollerton season in terms of us being down in the bottom half of the league and I am dying for us to shake that habit.

“We have got some brilliant players right throughout the team and we are capable of finishing higher.”

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