Highs, Lows, and Historic Wins: A Week of Progress at Rossington Main

This week has been a roller-coaster of emotions for our club. We started strong with our first team delivering a stylish 3-0-win midweek at home against Winterton FC. However, the momentum shifted with a disappointing 2-1 defeat away at Knaresborough Town. I'm still struggling to come to terms with how we lost that game—by halftime, we should have been out of sight. But that's football: if you don’t take your chances, you get punished.

Our development team, still a work in progress and filled with young local talent, suffered a tough 1-8 loss to title favorites Dinnington Town. But credit where credit is due—the lads and the managers dusted themselves down and delivered their first win of the season on Saturday afternoon, beating Kiveton Miners 2-0 on home soil. I’m delighted for them; they really needed that boost.

Saturday also saw our under-18 girls win their final pre-season friendly over on the station pitch. Then Sunday brought a historic day for our open-aged ladies’ team, who took to Lincoln United’s ground in the first preliminary round of the FA Cup, winning in style 1-6. It’s a moment of immense pride for me as Chairman—just two years ago, we didn’t even have a ladies’ team, and now we’re winning in the FA Cup!

Sunday also saw a narrow defeat for our ladies’ development team at home, losing 4-5, but their grit and determination were admirable.

People often focus on the men’s teams in football, but as Chairman, I manage the club's business side, so I’m involved with every team. I see myself as a quiet leader, someone who leads by empowering others rather than making noise. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Carlo Ancelotti’s book Quiet Leadership—it’s taught me the value of calm decision-making and fostering trust among all the teams.

Off the pitch, I’ve been busy with the final week of our summer camp activities, organizing a detailed clean of the Fan Zone Café after five weeks of catering for the camps. I’ve also been working on budgets, speaking with potential sponsors, and holding my weekly meetings with club officials and managers across all our teams.

There were a couple of breakdowns at the club this week, but as always, our grounds team handled everything smoothly, with no disruption to revenue or operations. This coming week, I’ll be in attendance across all of our team’s fixtures. I’m also excited that we’ll be hosting Doncaster Rovers Academy on Tuesday evening—a great partnership that brings top-quality football to our ground.

Thanks for taking the time to read and for following our club’s progress. Your support means everything to us.