THE CHAIRMAN

Welcome to everybody at Addison Road today for the first of five consecutive games at home in the United Counties Premier South Division. Today we host top of the table Rugby Town and if last season is anything to go by, we are sure to have an entertaining encounter on our hands today.

Against the odds and on the back of bad run, Sports’ best performance of the season ensured all three points against our visitors last season. With Rugby currently sitting top of the table with all to play for, I am certain it will be a far more keenly contested affair today.

Like most seasons we have had at step 5, there have been plenty of ups and downs. I feel we have adjusted to the competitive nature of this league, however, we do struggle to score goals and so we have found ourselves drifting back down the table. It was great to score three in the County Cup mid-week and I felt we deserved something from the game. I hope we can take our chances today as we need to start picking up points again.

Rugby Town are side with great potential and they have the set up both on and off the field to progress into step 4 football. I am very envious of the stadium set up our visitors currently enjoy and I am determined to get better facilities for our club in the future. Relocation has been on the cards since the early 2000s! We will continue to develop our existing site where we can but it is so hard to do anything with a clubhouse from the 1950s! We continue to work closely with Council and the FA to find a site to allow us to progress in the same way as teams towards the top of our division. Its nice to dream… but for now, I hope we can match our title challenging opposition today and that we might get something from the game!

I do hope you all have an enjoyable afternoon here with us at Addison Road and do have a safe journey home.

Best wishes

Richard Meadows Chairman

Good afternoon and welcome back to Addison Road for what seems a lifetime since our last home game. Its safe to say its been a real challenging period on what has been a real difficult run of games.

Looking back to our last home game Vs MK Irish we were very unlucky not to get anything out of the game, MK started the game very well and deservingly took the lead, After the first 10 mins we controlled the game and created a number of chances in which we failed to convert including a missed penalty. It proves at this level you have to take your chances when they arise or you get punished which we did. We then made the long journey to March Town where again I thought we controlled most of the game and limited them to few chances, we conceded sloppy goals and yet again failed to convert a number of chances. I’m not one for criticising referees however I felt their dugout controlled him from the first minute and a lot of decisions went their way, they should have been down to 10 min in the first half. The following Tues they had 3 players sent off…

Last Saturday we travelled to Eynesbury Rovers, although we came away empty handed I thought we were excellent, we started the game on the front foot and completely dominated 90% of the match. We wasted so many opportunities and another penalty saved by the keeper. They scored their only real opportunity in the first half where we got caught down the left hand side and then failed to clear a numbers of loose balls in the box. To top it off we lost Doyle through a nasty injury who was replaced by Sherpy! We continued to be dominant in the second half and created good chances with their keeper pulling off some great saves. Their second goal came in the 94th min where we were pushing players forward.

We then had the daunting task of our close neighbours Banbury United from the Conference North on Tuesday night in the Oxon senior cup quarter final. As expected they controlled possession in the opening stages however our patient play and discipline was excellent, We knew their dangers would be down the sides which is where they scored their first goal from. Their second was a just a great strike form a very good player. In the second half we gave our players the license to go and be a bit braver, the game opened up and we started to get a lot more of the ball and we started to get on the front foot, the exceptional Jimbo Watts clawed us a goal back to create an exciting end. When they scored the 3rd from set piece you could see that their relief however as normal our lads battled back with goals from the excellent impact subs Howards & Fountain. At this point I knew Andy Whing would not want another half hour. They were down to 10 with players struggling for fitness. He was protecting his players & similar to us have a number of important games coming up. Annoyingly we also had players struggling with Cramp but for some bizarre reason you can only use 3 subs in this competition? The most bizarre night I have ever been involved in but a great night for the club, a brilliant shift & performance from the lads and they deserve all the credit. We also had a 16 & 17 year old on the bench as we continue to invest in our youth system & give them opportunities.

Its been a tough few weeks and it doesn’t get any tougher than today where we face Rugby who are flying and will go on and win the league. We have to take Tuesday nights performance into today, we will need to show the same effort, desire & belief, if we do that then we will be fine. There is strong competition all over the park, Convey, Lemar & Doru are also very close to being in contention, as squad we are looking good and will be ready.

Enjoy the match & get behind us, Sharm

Andy Sharman