Kingham’s Kenilworth reign gets off to the perfect start

Kingham, who was joined on the bench by former Racing Club Warwick boss Ryan Cranton, who will be his assistant, and coach Ross Holtom, saw Town race into a three-goal lead inside 22 minutes before withstanding a spirited Badsey fightback.

And the former Nuneaton Griff joint-manager said that any points picked up during the new management team’s bedding in period will be a bonus.

“Ryan and I saw a lot of positives to take onboard,” said Kingham. “It will take a few weeks to settle down so all points are pure bonus.

“If I’m honest, if all the players were available from the previous week then we would have an unchanged team.

“Caretaker-manager Matt Sewell had a lot of input regarding players available and best positions and credit to the team that went out there and stormed into a 3-0 lead.

“One thing we tried to do is be as organised as we could and credit to the lads they did well.

“I thought our defence stood up well - we conceded from a 25-yard free-kick, penalty and a back-post corner - and Ross Davis was only really called upon for a great save from a header six yards out.”

Kingham brought in former Racing Club Warwick midfielder Nick Ford to make his debut, while Scott Donegan returned to the side after seven weeks in Spain, and the hosts were ahead in the seventh minute.

A free-kick was whipped into the box and Alex Shaw nipped in ahead of the Badsey keeper to open the scoring.

Adam Edwards then scored twice in five minutes to give Town a three-goal cushion.

Badsey reduced the arrears on the stroke of half-time when Grant Pinkney stepped up to curl a free-kick over the wall and into the net.

A soft penalty allowed Badsey to bring it back to 3-2 shortly after the break and the visitors enjoyed their best spell of the match.

Kingham brought on Kurt Millward for Donegan on the hour-mark and his introduction paid immediate dividends, with the substitute dancing past four players before feeding Edwards to complete his hat-trick.

Lee Tustin forced home a third for Rangers with virtually the last kick of the game.

n The club are holding their first Kenilworth Rangers Veterans’ day tomorrow with former players being invited down to watch a Town double-header, with the reserves entertaining Shipston Excelsior Colts at 1pm and the first team playing FISSC Reserves at 3.45pm.