A NDREW mADARA s

“thanks to all of you who travelled in numbers to both leighton last tuesday & to Shefford on saturday. we’ve come a long way since our first season as a fan/ members run club in 2017”

A very warm welcome to all of you braving the cold weather to support local football whether you’re here as a fan of the Blues or the Dynamos or simply as an interested neutral or groundhopper. We hope you have an enjoyable evening in our company and get to see a good game of football. In that respect, the omens are good. Matches between our two clubs usually have goals in them and tend to be good footballing spectacles.

Our opponents are always excellent hosts so it’s always nice to be able to repay the hospitality to Mike & Iain and their committee colleagues. As always we wish everyone associated with Aylesbury Vale Dynamos a warm welcome, an enjoyable evening & a safe journey home come the final whistle.

Thanks to all of you who travelled in numbers to both Leighton last Tuesday & to Shefford on Saturday. We’ve come a long way since our first season as a fan/members run club in 2017. We had no playing budget and borrowed Weatherfield Academy’s minibuses for away travel. On Boxing Day 2017, we won away at Banbury Utd. But we won 2–1 and the Dunstable away support was ecstatic. All two of us. Neil Barker & I were the two DTFC supporters there.

Several weeks earlier we’d played away at Edgar Street, Hereford. There were 1700 Hereford supporters there that Tuesday night who gave our lads a standing ovation at the end of the game. We’d lost 0 – 2 but had battled all the way. In the away section that night stood Scottie & Dean and two contract workers from Dunstable who happened to be working in Hereford.

It’s inconceivable that if we were to play the likes of Banbury or Hereford away nowadays we’d be able to count our supporters on the fingers of one hand. In another sign of how things have progressed there was no DTFC TV, Talk of the Town Podcast or Instagram stories in those days. None of this has happened overnight. It’s been the result of a lot of hard work from an awful lot of people. My predecessors, Alex and Neil did so much to save the Club and lay the foundation stones for what has happened subsequently.

On the pitch, Joe has taken us from the bottom of the League to a top four spot in just over a season. There’s still points to play for and we have three intriguing away matches to play at Crawley Green, Stotfold and Leighton Town, all with promotion aspirations of their own.

But just as it has taken several seasons to build a proper backroom team we have to be prepared to wait patiently for the success we strive for.

As a Community Benefit Society football club, it is imperative that supporters remember that our community work supporting the large numbers of people that we do every week, has the same importance and value as results at 4.55pm every Saturday. We won’t be breaking the bank to fund an unrealistic budget to achieve short term goals, otherwise we find ourselves back where we started from in May 2017.

Our goal, our purpose is to provide the highest standard of football that we can afford in order to provide a sustainable, long-term, future for our Club.

I have to say thank you to Scottie & Peter for walking from Creasey Park to Bell Close on Tuesday night to raise money for the Club’s charities. They’re both outstanding men, never mind outstanding volunteers who go above and beyond, like so many of our volunteers, to make this Club represent values of compassion, decency, tolerance, honesty and generosity.

I also wanted to thank John McLoughlin, the Chairman at Leighton Town, for his Club’s tribute to Aaron Bateman on Tuesday night. As a former DTFC Chairman, John knew Aaron well and his Club’s homage to Aaron on Tuesday was greatly appreciated and respected. In case you missed it, last week we announced a partnership with Lifestyle Cards who offer over 5,000 discounts with a wide variety of services, stores, and businesses. Our owners will be receiving information soon on how they can receive their cards. It’s our way of thanking our most loyal supporters for the incredible support they have bestowed on us and an indication of the forward direction the Club is taking.

A week on Saturday we entertain Colney Heath FC. It will be a “pay what you want” admission. We have secured the services of Mark from Farmhouse Catering who will be providing more of his superb pies and mash. As always Mark will offer a generous discount for Owners/Blue Card Holders, so please bring yours to obtain your discount.

Before then we face away trips to London Colney and then to Biggleswade Utd. Those of you unable to get to Biggleswade, may want to come and watch our U18s take on AFC’s U18s in what is bound to be an exciting derby.

Please be loud and proud but respectful towards the match officials and our opponents.

Andrew Madaras