Barry Morgan steps down as K Sports manager after losing 12 of his senior players' throughout the season

BARRY MORGAN has stepped down as the manager of K Sports after playing a major part in keeping the club in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division with limited resources.

The 57-year-old’s final game in charge of the Paperboys’ was their 3-2 home defeat to relegation-threatened Rusthall yesterday.

Morgan leaves the club in the bottom five in the table, having collected 10 wins and two draws from their 33 games, 12 points clear of the relegation zone, occupied by Lordswood and Tower Hamlets.

“I’ve had a conversation with (club secretary) Shelley Holtam last week and said it will be so difficult to do the same thing next season that we’ve done this year and losing pretty much every player and having to play the youth team for pretty much two or three months,” said Morgan.

“I’m not going to be able to do that unless we’ve got a budget and you need a decent budget to keep players and also if you do lose a couple to bring them in.

“It’s been a bit unfortunate really because at one stage we had the makings of a really good side.

“I’ve lost 12 players, all the senior players have gone apart from Harvey Killick."

Reflecting on his time at Cobdown, Morgan said: “I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been good. We’ve brought a lot of youngsters through haven’t we?  We’ve played some really good football and really it’s just a shame. I’ve lost the team, all those seven-dayers.

“You can do a season’s worth of that but I couldn’t do more than a season’s worth of building a team.  When I took over I had one player."

Third-from-bottom Rusthall boosted their survival hopes with a 3-2 win over Morgan’s side, with Tariq Ibrahim notching a brace for the Paperboys’ to take his tally to 10 goals for the season.

Jimmy Anderson’s men are now three points clear of Richard Dimmock’s Lordswood and have a game in hand, having collected their 23^rd point of the campaign.

Reflecting on his last game in charge, miracle worker Morgan, said: “Again, that typical where you’ve got seven or eight 18-year olds, some of them were 17.  You’ve got all those kids on the pitch, what can you do? If you got a result it would be a miracle, pretty much week-in-week-out.  Rusthall played well and all of the goals were errors.  That’s what you get with inexperienced players, it just can’t be helped.”

K Sports have five league games remaining, travelling to Erith Town next Saturday, before travelling to third-placed Glebe on Monday 11 April.

K Sports travel to Lordswood on Easter Saturday, before Ernie Batten takes his league leaders Sheppey United to Cobdown on Easter Monday before completing their campaign with a trip to Fisher on the final day of the season.

Morgan, the former Rochester United manager, was in charge of 39 games this season, winning 12, drawing three and losing 24.

K Sports travel to face Adam Woodward’s Erith Town side on a run of eight straight defeats and 11 games without a win.

Morgan, meanwhile, looks for a new club to manage next season, one with a playing budget.

Apologies to all concerned parties for publishing some incorrect details in the original article.