Men's Pre Season Games

The men finished their pre-season with a decent 1-0 win away at Shepshed Dynamo with another Iwan Murray goal, who has been excellent in pre-season. The hospitality from Shepshed was great and I hope we can host them in return one day.

I think this pre-season has been really good, the club has progressed on and off the pitch with Calum putting together a competitive squad of players and the maintenance team making massive improvements round the ground.

The real stuff starts on Saturday and I'm really looking forward to hosting Widnes and hopefully getting off to a good start.

Ladies Pre Season Games

The Ladies continued their pre-season with an 8-4 defeat against West Didsbury and Chorlton but I don't think the final result tells the full story of the game as, the Linnets played well in spells and scored some really good goals.

Toddy is close to naming his squad for the coming season and then we can concentrate on the football after an unsettling period for the Ladies team.

Linnets in the Community

Community Engagement Manager Josh Christian will be taking part in the Stick n Step Halton Fun Walk on 22nd August to represent the club. It's a 5k walk that will start in Town Park at 2pm before crossing the Stick n Step finish line at the Runcorn Shopping City. If you wish to take part, please follow the link below.

Halton Fun Walk

Season Tickets

We have had some unfortunate delays with getting our new season tickets printed but we have been assured that they will be delivered this week so will be ready to be collected at the game against Widnes.

We will have a list of new season ticket holders on the turnstile and then they will be directed to the new club shop to collect their season tickets.

Thank you to all our new season ticket holders, I've been overwhelmed by the response.

New Sponsor

I am absolutely delighted to share with you that we have signed a three year deal with Complete Security Service (CSS) for them to become our new shirt sponsor. This is the biggest commercial deal the club has signed so far and I wanted to say a massive thank you to our commercial team who have worked so hard to make this happen.

I am delighted that CSS will be our Security Partner as they are a good local company based in Frodsham and I cannot wait to work with owner Jim McGrath who is a great guy.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

Runcorn Linnets are delighted to unveil and introduce Complete Security Service (CSS) as senior men's front-of-shirt sponsor in an exciting new partnership. Based in Frodsham, the well-established company are specialist installers of domestic and commercial intruder alarms, fire alarms, door access, CCTV and security lighting.

In an initial three-year deal, the new sponsor will have branding on the front of both the Linnets yellow and green home shirts and also the change kit of orange and black for all Men's first-team games, home and away.

This will bring CSS valuable exposure not only in Northern Premier League matches across the region but also potentially further afield for games in the prestigious Emirates FA Cup and Buildbase FA Trophy as well as their Cheshire heartland area when the Linnets play in the County FA Senior Cup.

Complete Security Service design, install and maintain intruder, burglar, fire alarms, CCTV, access control and complementary security systems and can offer clients more than 30 years​' experience. An award-winning firm, CSS offer a 24-hour emergency service from City and Guilds-qualified staff.

Jim McGrath, proprietor of CSS, said: "We are thrilled at being able to support Runcorn Linnets as shirt sponsor. We are very impressed with the set-up at the club and the progress it has made, particularly since it returned to Runcorn 11 years ago. Like ourselves, the Linnets are proud to be part of the local community and I am sure that together we can both continue to achieve big things."

Dave Jones, chairman of Runcorn Linnets, said: "As a fan owned club, our aspirations and ambitions are heavily reliant on the backing of supporters and sponsors and we are very fortunate to have found a new Men's first-team shirt sponsor in CSS.

"We are extremely grateful to owner Jim McGrath, for the faith his company is showing in the club and for their very valuable support. This agreement is for three years but we hope that by working together, our association will be long, fruitful and rewarding for both parties." 

Men's Pre Season Games

What a great way for the men's team to finish off their home friendlies before the start of our league campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Witton Albion. To look so assured and comfortable against a team from the division above was very impressive and really shows the hard work that Calum and his coaching team have put in to hopefully make us very competitive this season.

Iwan Murray was outstanding again, scoring two very good goals and I have to say I'm really looking forward to watching him this season.

We travel to Shepshed on Saturday and then onto the big one with the El Classitoll against Widnes on 14th August, it should be a great game and I cannot wait for us to finally get down to the serious stuff.

Ladies Pre Season Games

The Ladies ran out 5-0 winners against Wirral Phoenix and the performance was as impressive as the result suggests. The only negative was a bad injury to Ellie Dyson who sustained a broken collarbone. That is a big blow for Ellie and also for the team as she is an important member of the team, I'm sure she'll come back stronger and I wish her all the best in her recovery.

The Ladies play all their competitive home games at the Linnets Stadium, it should be an exciting season for the Ladies following the premature ending of the previous season and I would urge all our fans to get down to the Linnets on Sundays to support them, they play some great football.

Men's Development Team

Unfortunately, the Development Team's game against Bootle Under 21s was abandoned after about half an hour due to one of our players being racially abused by a Bootle player. The player who was abused immediately left the pitch and his teammates followed him in a show of solidarity. I fully back their decision to leave the pitch and also the decision to abandon the game. I was at the game and I had no hesitation in calling the players off the pitch after Assistant Manager Toddy told me the players wanted to walk off.

Although it was a very unsavoury situation the reaction of the Bootle coaching team and players was exemplary, they apologised for what had happened and communicated how ashamed they were over the incident. A number of their players and coaching staff went into our changing rooms to apologise to our player and check on his welfare.

The referee witnessed the incident and it has been reported to the FA. We will concentrate our efforts on supporting our player.

Racism is completely unacceptable and has no place at our football club.

Millbank

As I'm sure you have all seen by now, our long term commercial partnership has come to an end. They have been our biggest supporters over the last 11 years and that support will never be forgotten. They will always be welcome at the Linnets and I hope we can work together again in the future.

It is the end of an era but the end of one era means the start of another. We will announce details of a new major sponsorship deal in the next week or so. As I keep saying, it is an exciting time for our football club.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

It is with sadness that Runcorn Linnets announce today that Milllbank's main sponsorship of the club is ending after 11 years.

Millbank have been huge supporters of the club since we "came home" to Runcorn in 2010 to play in a new stadium at Halton Sports in Murdishaw.

The deal with Millbank encompassed shirt sponsorship of senior and youth teams and also naming rights to The Millbank Linnets Stadium.

It feels very much like the end of an era as the Millbank name has become synonymous with the Linnets.

There is no greater tribute to Millbank's immense contribution than that - and it will certainly take time to get used to not having them around.

We have been very lucky to have such a staunch supporter in our early years.

Everyone at Linnets will always be deeply indebted and extremely grateful for the faith they showed at the outset in our project to build a strong community club.

We had spent our first four years from formation in exile, playing as tenants of Witton Albion in Northwich, and Millbank's support and financial backing provided encouragement, assurance and stability as we took on the new challenge of developing and managing our own facilities.

During Millbank's term as the principal sponsor, the club has achieved much in a short time, including promotion for our men's and ladies' teams to higher divisions, the birth and growth of our junior and youth teams and major improvements to the stadium and grounds.

Club chairman, Dave Jones said: "Millbank have been a terrific principal sponsor for Runcorn Linnets for more than a decade. Such longevity is very rare at non-league level.

"We as a club can't speak highly enough of their involvement and the major part they have played in firmly establishing Runcorn Linnets on the local football scene and wider community.

"We sincerely thank Millbank's managing director Dave Hopley and his staff for their invaluable support and assure them there will always be a warm welcome for them at Runcorn Linnets".

The club will make a further major announcement regarding sponsorship in the near future.

Men's Pre Season Games

The Men's team continued their pre-season programme with a comfortable 3-0 win at Burscough. The game was locked at 0-0 at half time but Calum stuck with the team that finished the half and he was rewarded with a much improved second half performance.

Dapo opened the scoring with a composed finish after being put through on goal by Iwan Murray. Iwan then added a couple of goals to his assist. The first being a lovely little lob from the edge of the box and the second he rounded the keeper after bursting through the Burscough back line.

It was another good performance from the Linnets and hopefully the lads will be full of confidence heading into our final home friendly against Witton on Saturday 31st July at 3pm.

Ladies Pre Season Games

The Ladies made their return to the Linnets stadium against Cheadle Stingers and although the 5-2 defeat wasn't what we would have wanted, hopefully Toddy got some useful information from the game.

It was good to see the Ladies back at the Linnets and even better to see so many fans come out to watch them for a pre-season friendly. They play all their competitive home games at the Linnets so hopefully they can get some good crowds in the season ahead.

Men's Development Team

The Men's Development Team also made their return to the Linnets Stadium and although they lost 2-1 to Irlam Under 21s it was a very good performance considering the limited amount of training sessions Gibbo has had with players.

I'm sure Gibbo will have gotten a lot out of the game and I was certainly impressed with the performance and I am looking forward to watching the team develop.

Runcorn Linnets 200 Club

The 200 club has been difficult to manage since the pandemic started, as draws used to be done in the clubhouse and we had a lot of cash payers who have not been able to pay through no fault of their own as we have not had games and not everyone attended games when we were able to host them.

When I became Chairman one of the things I wanted to do, was to get it back to how it once was. To be completely honest, I have failed and for that I apologise deeply. Draws have been late, results haven't been published promptly on the website and there has been an unacceptable delay in informing and paying winners.

I take full responsibility for all these issues. I felt I could manage the 200 Club but I simply haven't had time with a full time job, family responsibilities and my other duties as Chairman. However, there is no excuse, as I could and should have delegated it to someone else when I felt I was struggling to meet these obligations.

I am still learning my role as Chairman; I will make mistakes and this is one. All records are up to date and I have started contacting those who have won prizes to arrange payment of their winnings and I will hand over the administration of the 200 Club to the Commercial Team.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman