The Warrington Way

The Warrington Way

Introduction

Hi there, my name is John Warrington and this is my journey in football (manager). After beginning my career back in 1997, I had a playing career spanning 20 years starting and ending at Tranmere Rovers with spells at Liverpool, Swansea, West Brom, Preston and Leicester in between. Now though it's time for the next chapter in my career. I'm going to leave this post free to keep a track of my career.

My Playing Career



Here is my playing career in full (Simulated on FM18).

1997/98 - - | Apps: 28 | Goals: 10 | Assists: 1 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: 6.78 |
1998/99 - - | Apps: 24 | Goals: 13 | Assists: 2 | POM: 5 | Average Rating: 7.16 |
1998/99 - - | Apps: 0 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: N/A |
1998/99 - (Loan) - | Apps: 13 | Goals: 3 | Assists: 0 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: 6.75 |
1999/00 - (Loan) - | Apps: 39 | Goals: 9 | Assists: 1 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: 6.68 |
2000/01 - (Loan) - | Apps: 22 | Goals: 9 | Assists: 0 | POM: 1 | Average Rating: 7.03 |
2000/01 - (Loan) - | Apps: 17 | Goals: 6 | Assists: 1 | POM: 1 | Average Rating: 6.73 |
2001/02 - - | Apps: 1 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: N/A |
2001/02 - (Loan) - | Apps: 6 | Goals: 1 | Assists: 1 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: 6.88 |
2002/03 - - | Apps: 36 | Goals: 20 | Assists: 2 | POM: 4 | Average Rating: 7.12 |
2003/04 - - | Apps: 28 | Goals: 9 | Assists: 0 | POM: 1 | Average Rating: 7.04 |
2003/04 - - | Apps: 11 | Goals: 2 | Assists: 0 | POM: 1 | Average Rating: 6.64 |
2004/05 - - | Apps: 33 | Goals: 17 | Assists: 1 | POM: 5 | Average Rating: 7.25 |
2005/06 - - | Apps: 36 | Goals: 12 | Assists: 2 | POM: 3 | Average Rating: 7.11 |
2006/07 - - | Apps: 29 | Goals: 11 | Assists: 3 | POM: 2 | Average Rating: 7.11 |
2007/08 - - | Apps: 34 | Goals: 13 | Assists: 2 | POM: 6 | Average Rating: 7.20 |
2008/09 - - | Apps: 28 | Goals: 27 | Assists: 15 | POM: 10 | Average Rating: 8.00 |
2009/10 - - | Apps: 36 | Goals: 16 | Assists: 3 | POM: 4 | Average Rating: 7.44 |
2010/11 - - | Apps: 35 | Goals: 19 | Assists: 2 | POM: 7 | Average Rating: 7.49 |
2011/12 - - | Apps: 27 | Goals: 12 | Assists: 2 | POM: 3 | Average Rating: 7.31 |
2012/13 - - | Apps: 12 | Goals: 3 | Assists: 0 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: 6.83 |
2013/14 - - | Apps: 20 | Goals: 4 | Assists: 0 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: 6.86 |
2014/15 - - | Apps: 0 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | POM: 0 | Average Rating: N/A |
2015/16 - - | Apps: 34 | Goals: 8 | Assists: 2 | POM: 1 | Average Rating: 6.79 |
2016/17 - - | Apps: 14 | Goals: 2 | Assists: 3 | POM: 2 | Average Rating: 6.96 |

All-Time Record - | Apps: 563 | Goals: 226 | Assists: 43 | POM: 56 | Average Rating: 7.11 |

International Record - | Apps: 18 | Goals: 2 |

My Managerial Career

Watch this space

The Warrington Way

The Journey Begins

So after my retirement, I decided to spend some time away from the front line of football, working within the Centre of Development at Tranmere doing some coaching and continuing to work on my coaching badges. Fast forward to July 2019 and I've found myself a little restless as of late, therefore when Warrington Town approached me asking if I'd like to take the manager's job vacated by Paul Carden in the summer, I jumped at the chance.



The goal for this season is simple, promotion to the Vanarama National League North. We have the squad to do it and the media are predicting a 2nd place finish for us.



The Stadium



Warrington play their home games at Cantilever Park which holds 2,000 people. It's one of the smaller grounds at our level but I think it does the job for us for now.

Facilities



As you'd expect for a semi-professional side, our facilities are either basic or at best poor. Given that I want to be able to bring in young players from our development squads, improving our youth set-up will definitely be one of my priorities moving forward.

Warrington certainly have the financial capabilities behind them to aid their cause, mainly due to runs in the FA Cup in recent times. There are some decent sides in the Northern Premier League though like South Shields and Scarborough Athletic, so even the first hurdle won't be easy. Best of luck.

Warrington... not a bad rugby league side... but football hmmm, best of luck

2019-11-21 17:05#262988 ScottT : Warrington certainly have the financial capabilities behind them to aid their cause, mainly due to runs in the FA Cup in recent times. There are some decent sides in the Northern Premier League though like South Shields and Scarborough Athletic, so even the first hurdle won't be easy. Best of luck.

Thanks very much. I'm actually surprised by the level of teams at this level. Will be a challenge for sure

2019-11-21 21:22#263002 Griffo : Warrington... not a bad rugby league side... but football hmmm, best of luck

The aim is to eclipse the achievements of the rugby league side......I hope

Good luck mate, will be following with interest love a journeyman save.

Good Luck!

The Warrington Way

July 2019

The Staff Team

So the first thing I've noticed since joining the club is the lack of staff here! Here's a quick look at the current team I have to work with.



As you can see, it's paper thin and in desperate need of a couple of new additions. My aim now is to find some new recruits including a new Chief Scout and a new Head Physio. I'll report back here once I've managed to sort things out.

The Squad



Speaking of paper thin...the squad isn't in the best of shape depth wise. On first glance I can see that I'm going to need to find a left-back and a couple of centre-backs in order to strengthen us ahead of the new season.

2nd July
I won't be going into detail with our friendly fixtures but our first one saw our first team take on our U23's.

Friendly - Warrington Town 5-0 Warrington Town U23's

3rd July
Brian O'Donnell joins as our new Chief Scout
Nathan Walters joins us as our new Head of Youth Development

4th July
Paul Barrowcliff joins as our new Head Physio

6th July
Friendly - Prescot Cables 0-4 Warrington Town

7th July
Centre-back Denzil Williams turns us down and joins Barnet

9th July
Former Wolves midfielder Ross Finnie becomes the first signing of my managerial career as he joins on a free transfer.

Goalkeeper Fabian Spiess joins Warrington on a free transfer.

10th July
Attacking midfielder midfielder Ronaldo Brown joins Warrington on a free transfer.

Right-back Liam Hegarty turns us down in favour of a move to Morpeth

13th July
Friendly - Shawbury 0-8 Warrington Town

16th July
Friendly - Warrington Town 1-2 Rochdale U23's

17th July
Left-back Lewis Blackshaw joins Warrington on a non contract basis

19th July
Glenn Burgess joins as our new Chief Data Analyst

20th July
Friendly - Cefn Druids 0-6 Warrington Town

Darren Bent joins the coaching team

25th July
Centre-back Jordan Corke joins Warrington on a free transfer

27th July
Friendly - Warrington Town 0-2 Sheff Wed U23's

Interesting way of writing updates, haven't seen this before, I quite like it

There's some real quality in the squad. A good mix of youth and experience in the form of Steve Jennings and Jack Dunn, in whom both have Football League experience. They'll be useful assets this season, I feel. Some good acquisitions in both the playing and non-playing staff. The experience of Darren Bent is always welcome.

The Warrington Way

2019/20 Squad

With pre-season done and dusted, here is how the Warrington Town squad is looking going into the new season in the Evo-Stik Premier League

Goalkeepers

Fabian Spiess
Tony McMillan
Jamie Speare

Defenders

Mark Roberts
Jordan Corke
Lewis Blackshaw
Zac Corbett
David Raven
Shaun Beeley
Louis Barnes
Mitchell Duggan

Midfielders

Steve Jennings
Ross Finnie
Tom Warren
Scott Sephton
Jack Mackreth
Bohan Dixon
Ben Garrity
Ronaldo Brown
Dylan Vassallo
Alex Byrne

Attackers

Matt Chadwick
Jack Dunn
Tony Gray
Josh Amis

The Warrington Way

August 2019

Friday 2nd August
Callum Harris joins us on a one week trial.

Saturday 3rd August
Evo-Stik Premier League Matchday #1
Cantilever Park
Warrington Town 1 - Roberts (66)
Atherton Colleries 0 - N/A
Line-Up - Spiess, Raven, Roberts, Corke, Blackshaw (Barnes 71), Finnie, Garrity, Jennings, Mackreth, Brown (Vassallo 56), Chadwick (Amis 88).
Unused Substitutes - McMillan, Beeley, Byrne, Gray.
Man of the Match - B. Garrity (Warrington)
Match Stats - Click here for Match Stats

A fantastic start to my managerial career! I would have liked us to score more but I can't argue with three points on the board and a first clean sheet.

Tuesday 6th August
Midfielder Callum Harris signs for the club on a one year deal.

Thursday 8th August
The board bring in George Marshall as our new Director of Football.

Saturday 10th August
Evo-Stik Premier League Matchday #2
Whincham Park
Witton Albion 1 - Foley (39)
Warrington Town 3 - Mackreth (1), Chadwick (22, pen 38)
Line-Up - Spiess, Raven, Roberts, Corke, Blackshaw (Barnes 45), Finnie, Garrity, Jennings (Harris 45), Mackreth, Brown (Vassallo 79), Chadwick.
Unused Substitutes - McMillan, Beeley, Byrne, Corbett.
Man of the Match - M. Chadwick (Warrington)
Match Stats - Click here for Match Stats

It kind of set the tone for the game when Jack Mackreth scored with just 16 seconds on the clock. From them on, we were the better team for the majority of the game, aside from a 5 minute spell in the first half, during which Witton Albion scored. A superb three points in my first away game as boss.

Sunday 11th August
The club announce that our final season ticket sale figure is 135 season tickets.

Wednesday 14th August
Bohan Dixon departs Warrington, joining Coalville on a free transfer

Thursday 15th August
Josh Amis joins Southport on a free transfer

Saturday 17th August
Evo-Stik Premier League Matchday #3
Cantilever Park
Warrington Town 3 - Harris (16), Brown (55), Roberts (67)
Grantham Town 2 - Zoko (3), Atkinson (73)
Line-Up - Spiess, Raven (Beeley 89), Roberts, Corke, Blackshaw, Garrity (Finnie 67), Harris, Jennings, Mackreth, Brown, Chadwick (Dunn 55).
Unused Substitutes - McMillan, Barnes, Byrne, Vassallo.
Man of the Match - C. Harris (Warrington)
Match Stats - Click here for Match Stats

Not a good one for my heart this one. They took an early lead which was disappointing but we roared back with three goals. Their second with just over 15 minutes to go made things a bit nervy for us, with them missing a great chance with 5 minutes left. Thankfully for us, Danny Racchi saw red for them late on which killed the game off.

Saturday 24th August
Evo-Stik Premier League Matchday #4
Greenwich Avenue
Basford United 0 - N/A
Warrington Town 2 - Jennings (pen 5), Brown (69)
Line-Up - Spiess, Raven, Roberts, Corke (Corbett 75), Blackshaw, Jennings, Garrity (Warren 84), Harris, Mackreth, Brown, Chadwick (Dunn 74).
Unused Substitutes - McMillan, Beeley, Finnie, Gray.
Man of the Match - S. Jennings (Warrington)
Match Stats - Click here for Match Stats

Another great win in the end. I thought that we weren't really at the races in the first half, despite going in with a one goal lead. For the first time in my managerial career, I had to give the players a piece of mind and to their credit, they dominated the second half and deserved to win.

Saturday 31st August
Evo-Stik Premier League Matchday #5
Giant Axe
Lancaster City 1 - Cowperthwaite (53)
Warrington Town 1 - Brown (36)
Line-Up - Spiess, Raven, Roberts, Corke (Corbett 61), Blackshaw (Beeley 61), Jennings, Garrity, Harris, Mackreth, Brown, Dunn (Chadwick 61).
Unused Substitutes - McMillan, Duggan, Finnie, Byrne.
Man of the Match - R. Brown (Warrington)
Match Stats - Click here for Match Stats

The first time we've dropped points this season and it was more than a little annoying. We had enough chances to win about three games but didn't take any of them before they then hit us on the break in the second half. That goal took it out of us and we never recovered. Disappointing.

Team Stats



Player Stats



League Table

A very good start to the season. I'm surprised to see newly promoted Radcliffe Borough accompany you at the top of the pile, albeit we are only five games into the season. A slow start by some of the more favoured clubs for promotion could aid you in your bid to secure promotion. South Shields will be your toughest challengers personally. They have a budget that could attract some excellent players to this kind of level. Josh Amis' departure to Southport strikes me as an interesting one considered he didn't start in either of the two games he was available for. Either you've missed a trick or you have a strong pool of options, I'd lean towards the latter! Have to mention that I love the simplicity of the lay-out. Simple but very effective. Keep up the good work.

Won't pretend to know half as much as Scott! But second is a good place to be, lets hope you only continue to go up! Good start, going unbeaten, keep it up!

Great start for the mighty Yellows!