FORMER Albion Sports manager John Francis believes the club is lacking an infrastructure and must find one to be successful in the future.

Last week, Francis, along with long-serving chairman Jaj Singh, departed Toolstation Northern Counties East League Premier Division side Albion.

The former Sheffield United and Burnley striker was left with the difficult task of replacing Kulwinder Singh, who had been at the helm for 34 years.

Despite getting off to a good start, the 54-year-old struggled after the turn of the year, losing eight games on the bounce to leave his team second bottom, before the FA decided to void the campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Francis believes Sports were in no danger of going down though, and explains the reasons why he left.

He said: “We were both (Francis and Singh) aware of the furlough situation beforehand meaning the finances weren’t going to be the same.

“I wanted a few assurances about certain things that needed to be done for the club to move forward.

“The club needs an infrastructure. It only has bags, boots, balls and cones at the moment.

“We didn’t start too badly but we lost a couple of experienced players. I was confident we would have got the results to keep us up.

“I think we had four or five away games on the bounce which didn’t help. We lost the momentum. The team was too good to go down so I was never fearful of that.

“It was a good experience, there was nothing negative. There was a lot of hard work to be put in from everybody to move the club forward.

“My job wasn’t just to do well in the league and cups, it was more to get the club in a position where they could build on their infrastructure.

“They need Under-18s and Under-21s coming through and a base as well. The club is still playing at Farsley. Once they have that structure, it will help.”