Chairman's Blog - The Cold Snap

I think its fair to say that the weather beat us this week as our first teams game away at Shirebrook was unfortunately called off due to a frozen pitch as was every other clubs game in the league this week. This would have been our away fixture against Shirebrook after playing the home fixture over the festive period where we beat them 6-1.

Sunday sadly also saw us have to cancel our ladies home game against Airmyn FC Ladies due to a frozen pitch at our home ground Oxford Steeet which is always a difficult decision when you have spent money preapring for the game stocking up the bar and on catering supplies and not to mention all the volunteers man hours that go into preapring for any game to then see no money coming into the club, but the safety of the players and staff is always our number one priority and there was just no chance the game could be played.

Our Development team however won 3-0 against New Inn AFC in a game that was moved and played on one of the 3G pitchs over at the Eco Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The result puts them into the next round of the Eco Power sponsored Doncaster Rovers Saturday League KO Cup.

Off the field this week has seen us active again with our player recuirtment as we looked to add strength and depth to the first team squad for the tough run in and we are delighted to have brought in a pacey strong tackling CM and is a player who we also wanted early on in pre season but just could not make it work back then but this time around when the opportuntity arose we have managed to get the deal done. The player drops down two leagues to join up with the squad and both manager and player are delighted to work toegther.

Not that much activity to report this week, I had a catchup with the Vice Chairman on Tuesday, our Ladies Manager on Tuesday to discuss preparations for Sundays game which was also unfortunatly called off due to a frozen pitch and then Thursday saw me catchup with our Director of Football as I do most weeks to get a general update of all our teams.

Thursday I also caught up with the First team Manager by telephone for a general catchup like we do every week to review our progress against our objectives and for a general catchup.

Friday evening I had a call with the football foundation in relation to a potential grant funding application which was a really positive call but also very early days and I now need to go away and work on some proposals and then discuss with our landlord.

Saturday morning I had a coffee and general chat with the clubs Presidant, Vice Chairman, Director of football and the clubs Groundman.

This week will see me travel with work as part of my day job so my time spent on club business this week will be limited but we have such a great team who all have their own jobs and roles within the club I am confident eveything is in safe hands and really my role is just about providing the leadership, direction and talking to people ensuring everyone is happy, heard and focussed on the best intrests of the football club.

While away in Amsterdam and Rotterdam for the week with work I am however planning to go watch a live game on Wednesday night by making my way over to watch Utrecht vs Excelsior in the evening after work.