Friday 21 December 2018

Hip hip hooray

I recently joined that exclusive club of bionic patients who will carry a titanium hip replacement joint around with them for the rest of their days! 

The operation took place on the 29th November and although it had to be done because of the very uncomfortable state that an osteoarthritic hip leaves you in, the downside is that it has restricted me from seeing a live game since we played Eastleigh on the 27th November.

It has driven me mad sitting at home just doing a few exercises and very little else, waiting for the recovery time to come round and be signed off. All communication at the moment has come via the telephone and email and I can’t wait to get back down to the Gallagher and start doing my job again.

The trouble with convalescing is that you have far too much time to think and read. Both are a formula for sending you to bed smarter than when you woke up but it can also give you sleepless nights.

I have spent many hours over the past fortnight pondering every aspect of our football club. Amongst all the massive positives; I was brought back to earth with the headline in last week’s KM. It certainly stirred up a great deal of unwarranted comment and, in some cases, unnecessary abuse towards certain members of our club and the club itself. 

It is something that we all could have done without and we all need to move on and have clear positive minds for the real task in hand, which is supporting our team and management and start moving up out of the bottom four.

We have built an excellent club here at Maidstone United. We have first class, honest ownership. We have a great support. We are in the throes of change for the first time in six years and dealing with it on a day to day basis. 

Within the club we know we are not perfect, we accept we will make mistakes and put our foot in it from time to time, we don’t have infinite resources either but one thing I can tell you is that we all have the wellbeing of the club at the front of our minds. Everybody here puts in a serious shift to keep the club going as positively as possible. 

There are some negatives: such as the injury to our most creative and best goal scorer Blair Turgott but for me the most niggling negative of all at the moment is that we have a very small percentage of so-called supporters who seem to find great delight in letting us know what they think we don’t know and how they would go about solving all of our troubles. In some cases it has been quite personal and abusive. This is not helpful.

We have a huge job to do to stay in this league, so to the very small percentage of negative writers I have a very clear message. 

Firstly, you are entitled to your opinion and by all means express it but always in a non-abusive manner please. That said, if you feel so strongly that what we’re doing here at the club is wrong, do what anyone has the ability to do – stop coming and please allow the rest of us to get on with our jobs and let us run and support the club how we see fit.

Finally, and back on a positive note, can I wish you and your family a very happy Christmas and best wishes for what I hope will be a good 2019.

Bill