Town's Francis joins the 100 club

LIAM Francis clocked up his 100th Stratford Town appearance in the match against St Ives on Tuesday evening, which he typically marked with a goal-line clearance in the first half, writes Bryan Hale.

Known to everyone by his nickname of Spider, the commanding central defender was only 19 and had just been released from the Coventry City Academy when he made his Town debut from the substitutes' bench in an MFA match against Tipton Town back on 10th March 2009, during the closing weeks of Micky Moore’s tenure as manager.

He remained with Town for the rest of that season, playing 16 times in all before moving on to play for a number of prominent Midlands clubs including Hednesford and Tamworth, but he was persuaded to return to Town in the summer of 2015 as Carl Adams assembled his squad for their first ever season in the Southern League Premier Division.

A mainstay in Town’s backline in that campaign, his 51 games saw him top the appearances chart as Town battled through to secure their hard won Premier Division status.

And this season, apart a brief spell on loan at Coleshill Town in September, he has been virtually ever-present, featuring in 33 of Town’s 39 games so far, while he is currently on an unbroken run of 26 consecutive appearances, stretching back to the home game against Dunstable on October 8th last year.

Although he likes to go forward for corners and the like, he has only managed to get himself on the scoresheet four times, with the two he chalked up in his first Town spell being followed by a bullet header against Kettering in the Red Insure Cup last season and another in the league game against St Neots this time round.

But Spider’s main role is stopping goals rather than scoring them, and long may that continue.