As feared and predicted, a fair bit of time has elapsed since my last post. Too busy? Or the natural outcome of four games without a win? I'd like to think it is the former, but I'm sure subconsciously somewhere results have an effect on my ability to find time.
To keep the record straight, since my last most we have had the following scores:
A 1-0 defeat at Windsor. I knew it was going to be a bad night when I turned up to be greeted by a fuming Andy Leese has players fell vicitm to traffic on the M25 (in fairness, despite warnings and advice for getting there on time. We all know Andy is a very passionate manager, but I did have to reign him in a bit on that night for letting his anger spill out in front of supporters. Dressing rooms, private boardrooms or in your own office - fine, but not in front of the paying punters...there are better ways of showing you care, and Andy know that.
A 1-1 draw at Stourbridge. Funnily enough, this was one of the most enjoyable games I can recall for a long time. Tactically I think we were outsmarted in the first half, line-up changes didn't work. Talking to Andy after the game apparently the home side had made a number of changes to their formation from the game they had been watched in, this was the reason for our formation change...at half-time some normality returned and it was really pleasing to see the way we fought our way back into the game, equalised and somehow managed to not win. Some of the gilt-edged chances squandered in the match beggered belief, but at least the chances were made, we had shown we had the passion to come back from a goal behind and we had demonstrated the tactical flexibility to change a game. A pleasing outcome.
The post-match drive home with my Dad involved less critical analysing of the game; not because of anything that had happened, more the fact that we were giving Steve Wales and Sam Ledger a lift home!
2-2 v Wealdstone. The excitement of this FA Cup game has been somewhat lost in the memory now that the replay has come and gone. I spent all of Sunday visualising in my mind that moment the ball rolled over the line in the 97th minute for the equaliser at The Meadow, having battled since the 13th minute with only ten men, it felt like a heroic draw. We had done our bit. 11 v 11, we must have all fancied our chances in the replay. They had had their chance, and they blew it in the dying seconds. We had the momentum. Surely.
1-4 v Wealdstone.The news on Monday afternoon that Steve Wales would be out injured was a blow, but with the carrot of going to a decent pitch against Metropolitan Police in the next round was a huge one…but, alas, not one we were able to nibble at. It is impossible (no matter how hard I tried) not to imagine the difference it could have made to the season had we scooped the £4,500 prize money from beating Wealdstone and then the chance of another £7,000 from the following round…but it is not to be.
The disappointment is massive, but it does not change the ambition of the club, our goals remain the same. When I spoke to Andy on Tuesday morning we were both still in mourning, but it is so true that it is almost a classic case of being victims of our own success. The start we have had to the season has exceeded expectations and those expectations had grown to a point where we (the club, supporters and management) genuinely felt that we should win a cup game against Wealdstone. That is a great place to be, and somewhere we wish to remain. The fact that we lost this one off game does not change that, but it does mean that we have lost out on the chance to pick up some decent money that would have been a huge help to the club because, whatever you may hear, I can assure you that our position in the league table does not mirror where we would be if you based the league table on playing budgets.
And that is a reality we must face. If we are to carry on the vision of evolving Chesham United into a club for the town, funded and supported by the town, then there are going to have to be lines drawn and reality checks put in place. I hear comments around the terraces that we need a player in this position or that position, on the whole I agree, but I am not in a position to be able to wave a magic wand and come up with the funds to bring in this magical player. Andy knows where his budget sits and needs to work within that.
Without going into great detail I personally think we need to look closely at the structure of the club and identify areas that we need to get right. It might not always be agreeable to everyone, but we need to get this club to a stage where it can satisfactorily generate the income we need to do what we all want to see happen on the field. In short, we need investment in the club. As Chairman, I am not precious about my position and would very much welcome the arrival of new investors or benefactors that buy into the vision we have for the club. I would personally have huge reservations if anyone was to come in and offer us the dream of non-stop success, such is happening at Crawley Town and Mansfield at the moment, but on the other hand who would I be to stand in the way of supporters having those few years of success and glory, albeit as a toy thing to a wealthy owner? There is a lot to criticise about the way things were run under the Tony Aplin regime, but how many supporters are still around today because of the success in the early 1990’s?
And that is exactly why football faces this constant dilemma. Clubs will continue to receive huge investment and these very same clubs will continue to crumble as a result of it. The general consensus is that clubs need to be run properly, and live within their means, but how do you convince everybody of that when you have the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea as role models at the very top of our game? How do you tell a Crawley Town or Mansfield fan that actually, the way we, and many others, are running the club, is better than what they are doing?
It is very, very difficult. And it is with this feeling constantly in mind that we try to drive home getting our football club run properly. We want you as supporters to get involved in the club, get your friends and family enjoying coming along to the club and helping to build that good vibe that is starting to develop. Investors, sponsors and local communities – I believe – would not touch us with a barge pole if we were running up debt, excluding the community, evading the taxman and paying out what we could not afford, would they? I was speaking to Andy Leese on Tuesday explaining this very fact about how we can go about getting things right. Yes, I would love to say we have more money available to go out there and really go for promotion now we are out of the FA Cup, but I can’t, because we don’t have it. But, what I do have is a belief in what we are trying to do and I have come to realise that there are areas where we need to vastly improve if we are going to start attracting the type of income that would make another promotion an expectation rather than something that would be one of the greatest achievements in this club’s history…but that is not to say we shouldn’t dream.
Having been at the game on Monday night, I had a meeting with Mike Warrick at the club on Tuesday, interspersed with watching the Youth match out of the window. These are a big couple of months coming up for us with games that could potentially attract decent crowds (Weymouth, Chippenham, Salisbury and Leamington) and Fireworks Night on 5th November - weather permitting, guaranteed to be our highest gate of the season. Within the financing of the club we have also accounted for other fundraising initiatives, most notably a Sportsmans Dinner. Notoriously time consuming to organise, and a relatively high break even figure, but profitable if you can get it right. The last couple we have organised have sailed close to the wind, we need to decide what we are doing over the next week or two because if we don't have a dinner, we need something else to plug that budgeted for income (and there are ideas in the pipeline).
On Wednesday night we had a Board Meeting that focused on Fireworks Night, the Sportsmans Dinner, Commercial activity and the Finance Report. It was a relatively good meeting, everyone is focused on the matters at hand (I was pleased it didn't just turn into a postmortem about Monday's defeat, enough time has been spent reflecting on that, Board Meetings need to be decision making and managing the club, not just a time to share footballing opinions), albeit for various reasons we did not have a full attendance at the meeting.
By Thursday night it was time to go home and re-introduce myself to the wife and kids.
This week is not looking much better. I write this now ahead of the Weymouth match on Saturday, my wife is out with my Mum preparing the food at the club for later on, as soon as she gets home I will be off down to the club. On Tuesday night we play away at Bashley, Thursday Night is the Trust AGM and Open Meeting and then Friday is Race Night...I'm hoping we're just going through an exceptional period. That's my excuse for having not written much of late anyway, although a good win over Weymouth today and I'll probably be straight back on the blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment