Good behaviour earns Wembley reward

The Evo-Stik Northern Premier League’s best behaved management teams so far this season are off to Wembley next month to see England warm up against Denmark for the World Cup.

As a reward for their ‘excellent’ behaviour in the technical area since the campaign kicked off, the management teams at Skelmersdale United, Lancaster City and Romulus are set to enjoy an all expenses paid trip and a full hospitality package at the national stadium on Wednesday March 5 as England prepare for Brazil in June.

The Evo-Stik NPL now work with the Football Association on an annual basis to reward the league’s managers as part of the successful Respect programme with the competition based on referee’s reports on technical area behaviour from the start of the season up to and including 1 February. The marks are based on 3 for ‘Excellent’, 2 for ‘Good’, 1 for 'Satisfactory' and minus 1 for 'Poor'.

Tommy Lawson and his dugout team at Skelmersdale lead the technical area stakes in the Premier Division with an amazing average of 2.833 marks from a maximum possible of 3.00. Despite the very high average, Skem only just edged out last season’s Premier Division winners, AFC Fylde who also averaged a staggering 2.806.

In First Division North Lancaster City have been at the forefront of the Respect Programme for several seasons having won the FA’s National Club award in 2011.

The Dolly Blues won the trip to Wembley last season to see England take on Brazil and they’ve repeated their success this season under a new management team in Darren Peacock and his staff, once again demonstrating a club led ethos on the setting of high standards under Chairman Stuart Houghton. Lancaster just pipped another club who also set their sights high on behaviour in Radcliffe Borough.

In First Division South Romulus were the most comfortable winners of the three clubs, joint managers Dave Barnett and Richard Sneekes and their staff averaging 2.656. Carlton Town are currently in second spot in the division with an average of 2.481.

The Evo-Stik NPL’s Respect Manager Phil Bradley said: "We have worked in conjunction with the FA to provide these prizes to management teams as we want all the clubs to know that we do value the efforts made by the vast majority of managers to buy in the Respect Programme.

"It doesn’t just help improve the referees and assistants enjoyment of their match day experience but also has big benefits for clubs with less fines and less suspensions and that is the point we are consistently trying to get over."