John Reed believes Bill Fotherby can “make things happen” at Ossett Town
John Reed believes Bill Fotherby’s arrival at Ingfield can inspire Evo Stik Division One North side Ossett Town to greater heights, writes James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson).
Former Leeds United and Harrogate Town chairman Fotherby was appointed as Ossett’s director of football yesterday after Reed recommended him to the club’s chairman James Rogers.
Reed and Fotherby worked together at Harrogate between 2000 and 2005 when the pair engineered the club’s rise from the bottom of the old NPL Division One table to the top of the Conference North.
The partnership ended when Reed left for Stalybridge Celtic. Fotherby has been out of football since October 2011 after selling his Harrogate shares to Irving Weaver.
Reed admits that Fotherby wants success at Ossett and he told Sports Performer: “I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t make things happen.
“We have to walk before we can talk, but he made it very clear last night on BBC Radio Leeds to thousands of people that he wants us to be in the play-offs next year.
“We’ll have a lot of work to do in pre-season and I’m going to try and get a couple of players in during the close season because if we can keep them I think we have the nucleus of a good side.
“I think exciting times are ahead and he’ll be a breath of fresh air for everybody at Ossett Town.
“I think he can take the club to another level.
“People treat Ossett Town as a little football club stuck away in Wakefield and it is up to us to take the shackles off and make sure people know we mean business next year.”
Fotherby’s new role at Ossett is to help bring new sponsorship to the club, while also helping Reed with player recruitment.
Reed has a very high opinion of Fotherby and he said: “He was the best chairman I ever worked for, he was magnificent.
“He was supportive and it did not matter what things went wrong. He used to say ‘just make sure you don’t make the same mistake again’.
“He’s a wonderful man and a great man to be with socially. I had a great working relationship with him for five years at Harrogate Town.
“He rang me the week I got the job at Ossett to wish me well and he said he wanted to get involved in at football club.
“I had a word with the chairman James and said ‘look I think he would be a good person to give a call to’.
“Obviously James rang Mr Fotherby and invited him down and he met James, (vice chairman) Lee (Broadbent) and (club secretary) Neil (Spofforth) at the club and it went really well on the day.
“He came down again last week to look at the ground in more depth and then came to the Darlington match and the decision was made then to make him director of football.
“He has a foot in both sides, the football side and the club, and I think he is a fantastic addition. He is a very enthusiastic person, people like him and he’s a loveable type of person.”
Former Leeds United chairman Bill Fotherby is the new director of football at Ossett Town
Reed has been in charge at Ossett for nearly two months after succeeding Craig Elliott who joined Shaw Lane Aquaforce.
The play-offs dream has fallen away, but Reed’s so far short reign has started well.
Since his arrival Ossett have won four, drawn twice and lost just twice and Reed has been delighted with his players’ performances.
“I would say that there have been a lot of games that I didn’t expect to get anything,” he said.
“Ramsbottom away was a magnificent point after playing with nine men for 15 minutes. (The) Warrington (win) away was definitely one.
“We were very unlucky against Darlington so we have done really well. The only game where they have let me down was when we played Salford. Seven or eight of them had a full nightmare that night.
“We got beat 3-0, but other than they have been first class. The work rate has been absolutely fantastic. There is a great spirit and they’re all great in the dressing room.
“I take my hat off to the lot of them. The target was top ten before I came and if we can stay eighth it would be an amazing achievement by the team.”
Ossett are not in action this weekend.