The summer of 2026 saw much upheaval at The Shay. As soon as the 2025-26 season had ended, we were hit by the bombshell that manager Adam Lakeland had resigned his position in favour of a move to Morecambe, a team who had been relegated from the division but seemed to have money to burn. Perhaps we should have seen this move coming as, looking back, Lakeland had a history of leaving the teams he had managed in favour of pursuing his own career ambitions.
After several weeks John McGrath, previously the manager of National League North Buxton, was appointed to replace Lakeland. He faced the task of building a new squad after several key members of the team had departed in the interim period following Lakeland’s departure.
Notable player departures included Will Smith, ironically to Morecambe, Jamie Cooke to Hednesford Town, Will Harris to Hartlepool United and Jay Turner-Cooke to Shrewsbury Town. Controversy surrounded the circumstances of the latter two players as there was a dispute as to whether Town had actually exercised their option to retain them. The biggest issue here being that the club appears to have missed out on receiving transfer fees for them.
Other players to leave include Angelo Cappello and Florent Hoti. They are both yet to find a new club at the time of writing. I am disappointed at the departure of Cappello as he is a useful impact player. Hoti has plenty of talent but is injury prone and his temperament is questionable in my opinion.
One other big change from last season is that captain Sam Johnson is no longer the first-choice keeper. He has been replaced between the sticks by True Grant; son of former Stoke City and Man United keeper, and current Walsall manager Lee Grant. It will be interesting to see how this dynamic works as the season progresses. I would say Johnson was not at his best last season and I can understand why the new manager felt the need to make a change.
Johnson remains club captain whilst Cody Johnson has taken over the role of on the field captain. In terms of new recruits, I am excited to see how the likes of Zak Gilsenan and Ben Tollitt perform for us. Tollitt is a player with lots of experience at National League level and above and is someone I have admired over the years.
Overall, I am optimistic for the season ahead, I always am if truth be told, however, we have already played two matches and suffered defeat in both of them. Taking the positives from those performances, we generally played well and individual errors cost the team a result in both instances. In addition, we were playing teams in Forest Green and Boreham Wood who are expected to be challenging for promotion at the end of the season.
I would like to think that once the new players have settled in and the manager knows his best eleven, we will be at least in the mix for the play-offs come the end of April 2027.
