Richard Leadbeater

Biography

Boro’ boss Richard Hill snapped up Richard Leadbeater in the latter stages of the 1998-9 campaign to boost our strength in attack. To start with, it seemed to work too; Leadbeater scoring on debut at Southport and ending the season with four goals from 12 outings. He only scored five during the entire 1999-00 season, however, as the goals dried up. By the end of that campaign, Hill was gone and – via Steve Wignall – Paul Fairclough was back.

Not that Cloughie’s arrival was a problem for Leadbeater, you understand. The first half of the 2000-1 season saw the forward feature regularly when not injured. With his first game of that season producing two goals, perhaps Cloughie sparked a revival of fortunes in front of goal for the lad. Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way. He added just one more goal to a tally that looked a little less than ideal. In March 2001, the forward moved to struggling Hednesford Town; finishing up at Broadhall Way with 12 goals from 60 games.

Richard Leadbeater: After Boro’

For Leadbeater, he spent his post-Boro’ career entirely (as far as we know) back in the Midlands. There were spells at Nuneaton Borough, Halesowen Town and Redditch United after his time with the Pitmen.