BIFC Coach Interviews – Richard Day

In the second week of our ‘Coach Interview Series’, Club Media Officer Amy Blinkhorn sat down with Barton Athletic FC manager Richard Day.

Day guided Athletic to a 7-a-side Championship title in their first season (2021/22), also reaching the semi-finals of the cup. This season (2022/23), Athletic are currently second in the Premiership, after just four games. Richard spoke openly about his ambitions for the season, let’s take a closer look at the highlights from his sit down with Amy…

After such a positive start to the season, Amy wanted to find out Richard’s thoughts: “The premier league is a really tough division with some fantastic players and teams, and that’s one of the reasons why we belong in the premier league with our incredible players and their love of football. The first game [of the season] was a battling 1-1 draw against one of the top sides, after going one nil down their heads never dropped and our players showed their quality to come back and earn a well-deserved point. The second game was against the team that won the league last season and even though we were the better team in the first half we were 1-0 down at half time and we lost our way a little in the second half and stopped playing the football the lads show me week in week out in training and we couldn’t find the equaliser so lost the game 1-0.

Third up was another top side and it was all about how we responded from our defeat; we had a great team chat before the game and I could see everyone was really up for this game. In the game we fell behind twice but went on to win the game 4-2 and it was all down to a fantastic team spirit and togetherness along with the lads showing everyone why we are in the Premier league, every player was superb.

The fourth and final game, we wanted to finish a brilliant day with another three points and that’s exactly what the lads did with a 3-0 win, a brilliant end to a brilliant day of football from the mighty Barton Athletic FC.

Amy wanted to find out how Reece and Matt had impacted the squad: “Every football manager knows that your squad is so important over a season with players sometimes unavailable due to work or injuries so to have two fantastic players with Matt and Reece join the other super stars, then I’m a very lucky manager. Reece never stops running, he has an incredible engine with great work rate up and down the pitch and Matt is a born leader with a calmness to his game with his touch and passing.”

It was time to talk about ambition: “My ambitions this season are all about the lads enjoying their football and to keep building up our incredible team spirit and showing the Premier league what Barton Athletic FC are all about, on and off the pitch and with all the qualities we have as players and people we are going to give our best to challenge for league and cup competitions.”

Amy asked about Aaron Walton and the role within Day’s backroom staff: “I’m so lucky to have Aaron by my side at Barton Athletic for so many reasons, we are always on the same wavelength with football, he helps warm up super goalkeeper Jay at training and on a match day, he has taken charge of games as a referee which he is incredible at with all his referring experience. I know he has taken on doing the match report as well. He is Barton Town FC’s match day voice on the radio, so we are so lucky to have a professional do our match reports. But most importantly of all I’m lucky enough to be able call Aaron a friend.”

Finally, and as has become tradition, Richard end’s by highlighting the volunteers within Barton Inclusive FC: “All the volunteers at our inclusive football club are incredible, there’s so much that happens behind the scenes that people don’t get to see with the planning of fixtures, sponsors, fundraising days and tournaments, safeguarding, new kit and equipment, managing the funds to keep the club running and so many more things our army of volunteers do. So, with having all our brilliant volunteers, I’m able to focus all my volunteering time on the team on the pitch and always be there to help them in life off the pitch too.”

A fantastic chat with Richard Day, we loved his line about the ‘army’ of volunteers.

This season, Richard’s team are proudly sponsored by Easy Buy: Pay Outright or Spread The Cost – Easy Buy

Barton Athletic FC are next in league action on Sunday 11th December in Sheffield, where they will look to build on their superb start to the season.