St Neots Town are lucky to have such an ambitious and conscientious manager

New St Neots Town owner Lee Kearns has delivered a glowing assessment of manager David Batch despite a difficult season on the pitch.

Batch celebrated a year in the Town hotseat during this week.

He enjoyed a spectacular start to his reign when steering Saints into the Southern League Premier Division play-offs last season where they were eventually denied promotion by a controversial penalty in a final defeat at Truro City.

But the current campaign has been one of frustration with Saints left languishing in 15th place in the standings after a 5-2 derby drubbing at Biggleswade on Boxing Day.

It’s a position they still occupied ahead of the visit of King’s Lynn Town to the Premier Plus Stadium today - the latest game in a season plagued by injuries to key players and a lack of consistency.

Kearns said: “The frustration is that the ability is clearly there, but we have been decimated by injuries and unavailability this season.

“If we can get a full squad back and make the play-offs it would be fantastic, but if it doesn’t happen we will move on.

“David is under no pressure to do anything other than continue the job he has done in developing our first team.

“David is very, very important for us. He is a progressive coach who is open to ideas.

“He is very driven and ambitious, but also someone who is conscientious.

“Lots of managers don’t have that attitude and I believe we are very lucky to have him on board.

“He did fantastically well after coming in during last season and he has continued to do a good job despite being up against it this season.”

St Neots are eight points off the play-off places.