This week, some thanks and some apologies.

Firstly, I would like to thank all those who turned up to watch the first team on Saturday.  We certainly had our biggest crowd of the season and it was a delight to see so many former players coming to see how we were getting on including two ex chairmen.  There were some kind comments too, with people generally impressed with our improvement over the last couple of seasons, and I hope that they will all be back again soon.  Thanks too to the 1st team who gave us an absolute thriller of a cup tie, and played some very attractive and purposeful football going forward.  At 3-1 I thought we had the tie sewn up, but in the words of our 1st team manager, we were sloppy and allowed them back in, and unfortunately went out to a penalty shoot-out.  A couple of weeks ago I remarked how impressed I was with the solidity of the 1st team defence, and my view hasn't really changed as previous results will testify.  I truly believe that we simply had an off day at the back on Saturday (and looked great going forward), and that we will sort it out at training on Wednesday and be back to business as usual on Saturday.  Our aim must be promotion this year, and I believe that we are more than capable of achieving that goal.

Congratulations to the 2's on their first league win of the season, which was well overdue, and I am sure they will now kick on from that, and also to the 4's who haven't enjoyed the greatest time of late, so their 10-1 cup win was exactly the filip required, and well done to the 8's too for a good victory at Old Wilsonians.

Now to the apologies.  Basically, I would like to apologise to every single one of the 5th and 6th team that turned up on Saturday, but were let down really badly by their team mates not turning up.  I recognise that in a couple of cases this was unavoidable and these things happen, but crying off less than hour before kick off, or even the morning of the game is clearly unacceptable.  I would also like to apologise to the captains who had to go through so much pain to get their teams out on Saturday.  There seems to be a growing problem of players either not confirming until very late, or just dropping out towards the end of the week for reasons they must have known about probably a week before.  I spent most of Thursday night and some of the early hours of Friday trying to sort some of the mess caused by this minority, and one captain who had Friday off supposedly to relax spent the entire day orchestrating the teamsheet to ensure we had the right available players in the right teams for Saturday.  Clearly this too is unacceptable.  People are asking why our teamsheet is being delayed or is unpublished - my response to those people is, ask your teammates if they have confirmed their availability and made it easy for everyone else.

So let me finish with a question to that minority that is really letting the rest of the club down.  Do you want to be part of a club that is on the up, that is showing a vast improvement on the pitch and a fantastic team spirit on it, where everyone pulls together, is part of a team and always try to support their team mates?  If the answer to that question is YES, then fantastic you are very welcome, but please think how you can help by advising availability promptly and paying fees promptly.  However, if you are someone that just wants the occasional game when they feel like it, will try to get out of paying match fees and membership when you can, and just want everything put on a plate for you, then to be honest we will not be sorry to see you go, for really you are not in spirit part of our club.

Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman