Season Summary 2007/08
After the successful end to the previous season, hopes were high for the new campaign. Almost all the players signed on again, although a few were still carrying injuries and would miss the opening games. Pre-season was disrupted somewhat by a spell of bad weather, meaning a few planned friendlies were called off, but others arranged at late notice. The team qualified for the quarter finals of the Goldline Trophy, albeit in a rather unconvincing manner, winning just one of their three group games.
When the League season started, LR's opening match at Silsden was called off because the Yorkshire club were ground sharing with Keighley rugby club and their hosts had a prior call on the ground. Confidence was high at the club, but although they started with a win over St Helens Town, in the following fifteen League games up to the beginning of December only one more victory was won, at Winsford early September. Chances were being created in every match, but players who last season would have turned them in seemed to have lost their touch. Goalscoring opportunities were spurned over and over again. There was a problem at the back, with injuries and suspensions meaning the management had to do a lot of shuffling around of players which clearly affected the side, while behind the scenes the training regime for the players had lapsed and that also showed as often the Atherton team matched their opponents for over an hour of the match before running out of steam and conceding the game.
There were early exits in almost all of the cup competitions, the exception being in the FA Vase, where two victories were followed by a narrow defeat to Newcastle Benfield in a replay.
When Nelson came to Crilly Park at the beginning of December, manager Roy Sweeney didn't arrive for the game and shortly afterwards announced his resignation as events in his private life were preventing him from giving the necessary time to the club.
Reserve Team manager Malcolm Anderton was promoted to take over and a majority of the players remained. There was some early success, with a win and two drawn games over the Christmas period. One of those matches was against Squires Gate which was abandoned because of fog on 80 minutes with the score at 3 - 3 and LR down to ten men. The League decided that rather than replay the game, they were happy for the score to stand as long as both clubs were, so the result stood. Unfortunately after that, things slipped back. Although two of the games were against Salford City and Trafford, who were both to be promoted at the end of the season, only one match was won from the turn of the year into March.
There was a strange turn early March when Acting Chairman, Jane Wilcox, received a phone call from ex-LR player Stuart Humphreys saying he was the new manager. The club's Chairman, Allan Grundy, was absent from the club at this time having an operation but he had apparently been concerned about the teams performance and felt a change was needed to avoid relegation and contacted Humphreys without speaking to anyone else at the club first. Rather than stir up any trouble, club officials decided to accept this decision.
Humphreys made a number of changes to the side, bringing in players with Conference experience including ex-LR favourite Lee Unsworth, but the new look side failed to make any impression, not managing to win any of the remaining League games and losing to Stoneclough in the Hospital Cup.
Another season with three different managers was clearly not good enough and showed in the teams final position of second from bottom. They had to wait for the League's AGM to confirm or not whether any clubs would be relegated this season. Most were confident that the team would be safe, but nothing was certain until the AGM.
Exactly what happened next isn't known for sure. From one side the club said they wanted a new manager for next season, but from the other Humphreys stated he only agreed to stand in for the final two months before moving on. But however it came about, the club were searching for a new manager and on 12th May appointed ex-Ashton Town boss Dave Hughes.
Also leaving the club at the end of the season was Secretary Christine Rowlands. Initially, after a couple of traumatic seasons which meant more stress and hassle than most Secretaries get in their careers, she wanted a complete break from things. However, her good work at LR hadn't gone unnoticed and when new club AFC Liverpool approached her to be their first Secretary, it was an opportunity she couldn't turn down.
There was some confusion over Chairman Allan Grundy's movements. He announced that he was resigning from the club at the end of the season after around 50 years of service on and off the pitch, but then although he rarely went to the club he did carry on doing work for them at home. There were a number of reasons behind his decision - his operation, tiredness after ten seasons which at times had been very difficult and some differences of opinions behind the scenes.
The BBC made use of the club late in the season for a television programme they were making called "The Cup". The filming lasted six days for the programme which was shown on BBC2 in the autumn, with acting Chairman Jane Wilcox having to get to the club at 5.30am to open up for cast and crew.
So, another difficult season for the club came to an end. Three managers, a team which had done so well the previous season failing to produce this time and more off-field staff leaving. The club was in desperate need of some stability on the pitch and Hughes set about building a strong coaching team as well as a new squad.