Good Afternoon all!

Well, it’s been an eventful start to the season for the men’s first team, we already have two good wins and a “how on earth did we not win that match” under our belts, and we seem to have discovered our goalscoring form that we haven’t had for the last two to three seasons!

The performance away at Marine, was in my humble opinion our best so far this season! All we can ask for at this stage is a gradual improvement in performances and a gelling together of the squad.

We are already starting to reap the benefits of a bigger and deeper squad, being able to bring in fresh players of the quality of DJ, Isaac, Conor, Bailey and Darren who are all first team starters in their own right, really gives us something different to what we have had before.

I remember the last time we played Marine, it was the final game of the 2018/19 season at home, and we won to gain promotion from the the Evo-Stik league (as it was then) and condemned Marine to their first ever relegation.

Even after all my years since then at Farsley, this is still one of my biggest footballing memories and still one of the hardest lessons to learn. The look on the Marine chairman’s face, but his grace in defeat and relegation when I shook his hand at the end of the game, despite how he must have felt and knowing the aggro that he knew was going to be coming his way, he still took the time and found the class to congratulate me and wish us the best for the following season.

One of the main lessons that i still struggle to learn even now, is keeping my emotions (both positive and negative) out of the business side of the club and my personal life when I get home. Being gracious in defeat and magnanimous in victory, is for me the hardest part of this job, because whether you like it or not, as a fan who loves your club, if they lose you have a terrible week, and if they win you have a great one!

As we all know we are a village team, the second highest placed village in the entire football structure and by far the smallest. We are punching well above our weight in every sense of the word by continuing to compete at this level, and this is an accolade we are all very proud of.

But to achieve this takes a huge amount of time and resource, and with each passing year our club grows, from a business perspective, on the playing side through all of our of field activities, teams and age groups, and reputationally as well. As we are starting our 5th year at this level we can only now be considered as NLN regulars, which for us is a big step forwards!

As this organic growth gains momentum it requires more and more resources to do so and to remain competitive!

However, as club operate on the smallest day to day operational volunteer team in the league, we also have the smallest match day volunteer team in the league and to date we have currently sold just 4 full season tickets for this season, which is again the lowest in the league by a huge distance.

So if anyone has any free time they can spare, regardless of how much you have, how often it is or what your skill set is, we would welcome your efforts. We can offer match day tickets, match day food and discounted retail items as a thankyou! If you are able to help in anyway, please send a message to this Facebook account.

Main Pitch :

As you will all be aware, we after embarking on our pitch renovations we encountered an unexpected issue. A post commencement survey identified a problem relating to the historical use of the site, and it’s subsequent non-existent management when it came to historical works.

It has taken us longer than we had hoped to be able to find a resolution to this issue, as many specialist contractors are busy at this time of year as this is the peak time for their activity, so we have been at the mercy of their availability. I have personally met with 5 different groups of engineers looking for solutions, pricing and timescales for completion on this.

Yesterday I agreed terms and signed off on solution for this, and will get a commencement date next week, which I will update once I have it. Therefore, our first home game is more then likely to be the one against Spennymoor, which is the next scheduled home game after the Leamington game.

We have as would be expected been prudent throughout this process and have always had and still have multiple contingencies in place, and all of the relevant authorities have been part of this process.

As frustrating as this has been (and there is obviously a significant uplift in costs and financial requirements which I am covering) this is the greatest investment this club has ever had and will be an absolute game changer for us, in so many ways! So I have to look at this as short term pain for long term gain…

Keep your eyes on our socials today for news of another top permanent signing! Pav does love spending my money!

See you all at Scarborough tomorrow!