Director's blog: OA's Q&A

What a few weeks it has been. After two seasons of Covid disruption at last we are seeing some regular football, live at the stadium, with enthusiastic fans creating a great atmosphere.

The men’s first team are doing us proud right now, second in the table as I write this and on an unbeaten (well you know what I mean…) run of 12 matches.

I must congratulate Hak and his staff for turning the season around after our form collapsed in October. It seems a simple demand on the players has paid off: work harder! We can see the effect of this in our performances. Opponents are given far less time on the ball and pushed to make mistakes; when we attack we have more players available making runs, getting into good positions; when we lose the ball players are working their socks off to get back in position and defend.

When we the fans see our team playing with such effort and commitment it makes us even keener to shout our support. It’s win-win and long may it continue.

If I could just add one important additional reason for our recent success: my absence from the matches. I have been stuck in France as the Covid restrictions tightened in November and this appears to have had a miraculous effect on results. Finally, I’ll have to admit that Tim Murrell and you others are right, I am a bad omen…don’t worry I’m not returning to Kent for a few weeks yet!

Despite being away for so long there have been a few questions flying around and so I thought I’d give you my answers to some of them.

Is this the best team we’ve had at the Gallagher since coming home?

I think it’s too early to say. We’re on a great run and the team is playing some exciting football but let’s judge them after a full season. Hopefully in May we’ll be celebrating something special. It would take an exceptional season-long, effort however to match Jay’s promotion squad of 2016. The squad which sat near the top of the National League table towards the end of 2017 was decent too. Players such as Pigott, Lewis, Loza and Hines were outstanding and we beat teams like Dagenham, Woking, Eastleigh, Sutton and Macclesfield all away from home…and Cheltenham!

What’s going on with all these contract extensions then?

Terry, Bill and I feel we have an exceptionally talented and hard-working management team and playing squad this season. Given there is a reasonable chance of promotion we felt it was timely to secure the services of our manager and the spine of next season’s team early.

We are delighted with where we have got to with this but of course other players still have the opportunity to prove themselves too. There is abundant talent throughout this squad.

We are of course aware that extending contracts like this at our level of football is not without risks. In other situations I have seen the award of a long contract cause players to stop trying so hard or go off the boil. Others are unlucky with injury. In the case of this season’s squad we have a very honest, hard-working group so I have no worries on that score.  

How are the club’s finances doing?

Through Covid Terry, Bill and the team worked very hard to batten down the hatches and avail ourselves of all the public financial assistance going. You, the supporters, have been generous in donating season ticket moneys and in many cases working as volunteers around the club to help us where possible.

So, despite being shafted by the National League in the October 2020 funding distribution (more on this later), we have managed to turn in another profitable year. We will be publishing the figures in a few weeks time. This is the ninth year in a row we have made a trading (EBITDA) profit and I will be asking Kieran Maguire, the guru of football finance, if he knows any other club with such a record.

It may not be as sexy a football record such as winning the league nine times in a row, but I’m mighty proud of the achievement nonetheless. Our profitable business model underpins the club and makes it safe and sustainable in an era of bankruptcies and financial over-stretching.

Are there any plans to expand the stadium?

In past years stadium expansion was obligatory in order to meet grading requirements (the reason behind the Genco Stand) and was paid for by the profits we made together with grants made available by the Football Foundation. The situation now is slightly different. We don’t have to expand the stadium for ground grading purposes now, regardless of whether we get promoted this season or not.

However this season has seen the occasional return of a horrible phenomenon – crowd disturbances. We are trying to address this by improving our security operation and by restricting access to unaccompanied, non-member youths. Nonetheless we have to admit that the way we are able to accommodate away fans is not ideal. Placing home and away fans in the same stand is always provocative to a certain section of support. It’s not just at the Gallagher. We have seen this at Eastleigh, at Dagenham and at other stadia. It’s never ideal.

Some fans have asked why we can’t put away fans in the town end. Well the stadium was designed to have away fans entering through the north turnstiles, they can be segregated more easily, turnstile capacities have been calculated with this in mind, extra seats can be made available in the main stand. Furthermore the town end has the greater facilities for home supporters, the Spitfire Lounge, the food outlets, the Club Shop, the meeting area in front of the turnstiles. There simply is no other way of segregating supporters safely in line with capacity, entrance and exit requirements.

In the master plan for the stadium, once built out to its 6,000 maximum capacity, the town end becomes the home supporters’ end and the Genco Stand becomes the away supporters’ stand, with a segregation line where appropriate. We may have to add turnstiles and exits at the north end at some stage. However we have limited funds for expansion at present. This might change if we are promoted.

In the National League we become eligible again for substantial grant support, although Football Foundation grants are always capped at maximum 50% of total building costs… As a result we are starting to look again at the feasibility of replacing the town end terracing with a larger terrace, maybe a slightly smaller version of the Genco Stand. This would have to be done within a tight budget, without restricting future development of the West side stand and with a design capable of having additional facilities (changing rooms, seats, bars, etc) bolted onto it in the future.

It will be a fascinating feasibility study. If we were to find a way of designing and funding this it would resolve our Genco Stand issues instantly. The town end would revert to its previous use as the home supporters’ end. It’s a long shot but watch this space.

Are we still contesting the National League’s disastrous governance during the Covid period?

Where do I start? Firstly, let there be no doubt as to what happened. The National League board proved to be incompetent throughout the crisis, from March 2020 onwards. There were errors of judgement and errors of mismanagement, there was arrogance and failure to admit to mistakes and apologise for them. Clear-headed directors would have resigned but the ones we had were simply unable to grasp the seriousness of the crisis and the extent of their statutory responsibilities as directors, which are to represent all clubs fairly and not to feather their own clubs’ nests.

The chairman, Brian Barwick, who finally resigned months after we and other clubs called for his head, kept blindly bleating ‘we are a well-respected league’ during every public utterance, as though he was conducting the orchestra on the Titanic.

Jack Pearce, who was the architect of the flawed distribution of October 2020, has refused to admit to or apologise for all the errors of judgement. Let’s not forget it was Pearce who saw fit to recommend a distribution which went against government guidelines to reimburse lost gate receipts. His distribution proposal rewarded seven out of eight National League board members’ clubs with £500,000 more than they should have received. He acted as though he knew better than government. To add insult to injury the directors of those clubs, whose pockets bulged after adopting the Pearce distribution plan, then had the gall to appoint him Barwick’s replacement as League Chairman. Even Stalin would have blushed.

It’s really no excuse to say ‘well it was Covid so what else could we do’. The then Chairman Barwick should have had the humility back in March 2020 to establish Covid crisis committees to assist the league. Some of his board colleagues, who subsequently resigned, had proposed this. He could have drafted in additional support. He could have seen what was going to happen and himself resigned, admitting he had no appetite for the challenges ahead. He and his board simply weren’t up to the task on their own. They behaved as though they were some village committee organising a knees-up, not a company board responsible for governing some 68 clubs, clubs with combined turnovers of £50 million, clubs with 2,000 paid staff and hundreds of thousands of fans. It’s very serious stuff.

Over the past months we have been working hard with other angry clubs and our legal advisers to hold the guilty parties to account for what went on in these recent dark days. This has proved complex and expensive. We have not given up though.

In the meantime we have been made aware of a project to produce a film documentary telling the truth about the National League governance during this period. We are looking forward to working with the producers and writers to create a powerful documentary, whose exposure of the truth will have a real impact.

Have you finished now?

Yes, give me a cold compress. Goodness, I haven’t even mentioned 3G pitches yet…

Er…Any news on 3G pitches?

Yes. Tracey Crouch’s recent review into football governance, hopefully to be adopted by government in the Spring, says League 2 should allow 3G pitches for a grace period of three years, which is as good as unconditionally allowing them. Moreover there are now clubs in League 2, e.g. Sutton, Harrogate and Leyton Orient, who have shown they are in favour of 3G pitches. I remain confident that we will be able to use our 3G pitch in League 2 if ever we knock on the EFL door.

Anything else?

Yes. Apologies for being long-winded. That’s what not being able to attend matches and talk to you in person does for me. So let me end by wishing you all a great end-of-season spent following the Stones.

Yours in sport

Oliver Ash

NL grant: utterly confused and bitterly disappointed

The distribution of the £10million grant from the National Lottery to the Vanarama National League has left me utterly confused and bitterly disappointed.

Maidstone United Football Club have many things to be proud of: one being the way that we run the business in a sustainable way, reinvesting the profits from our activities back into the club, and two the sheer volume of deeply committed supporters who come and support the Stones and pay their entrance fees.

The Government was specific in that the money they brokered for our football clubs, via the National Lottery, was designed to ’replace lost gate revenue.’ Clubs agreed to start the season, taking on trust the promise to cover these lost revenues. This has not happened.

Our average gate over the last two seasons has been 2,000 per match and our club will receive 36k per month from the National League. This is some 50% below our estimated monthly shortfall! It is also nearly £50k per month less than Dover who attract just over 1,000 per match.

On the face of this it looks stupid but when it becomes clear that those sitting on the Board making the decisions are heavily biased towards their own financial wellbeing, then it's not just a stupid decision but possibly corrupt.

For the Board of the National League to arbitrarily decide the first thing that they will do is take 60% for their own clubs and give the South and North just 20% each looks stupid, especially as they have no mandate to keep the money for themselves as they should be representing the interests of all of their member clubs.

We are sure that the league sponsors such as Vanarama, BT Sport and the National Lottery will be carefully reconsidering their sponsorships on the back of this scandalous decision!

This is a clear case of the Board not serving the membership and a clear misuse of the way that the money was supposed to be spent.

For Tonbridge Angels to get 30k per month on their crowds of 600 must have felt like Christmas to them but for Hungerford Town to get 30k per month on their crowds of just over 300 it must feel like Christmas, New Year and Easter all at once.

This is utterly crass, short-sighted and stupid, with the Government's words ringing in our ears that the money is: ‘to be spent on lost gate revenue.’

Hungerford and Tonbridge never ever had this amount of gate revenue so they are now in a massively better position as they will have spare money to sign players that they would never have been able to afford to attract.

This can also be seen with Oxford City and their 350 supporters getting the same 30k as Havant and Waterlooville with their 1,400 supporters.

The corruption and conspiracy theories abound when Boreham Wood, who have already made public their association with Sports Minister Oliver Dowden, and who have 730 supporters get just 10k per month less than Notts County with their 5,000 supporters.

Dagenham and Barnet, with their crowds of 1,200, also do well from the distribution – again just 10k per month less than Wrexham with their crowds of 4,000.

Please bear in mind that both these two clubs have members on the Board before you decide whether this constitutes abuse of power, conflict of interest or stupidity.

This is one of the most extraordinary cases of the misuse of grant funding that I have ever witnessed.

The FA and National League had a clear mandate to spend the money on lost gate revenue. What they have done is ignore this and instead allowed National League Board Members to favour some clubs with outrageous amounts of money that far exceed their gate receipts.

Terry Casey

A return to some sort of normality

We are all desperate to return to some sort of normality after some of the most stressful and anxious times we will ever experience.

Whilst to some football is just a sport, to many people it is much more than just a game. For millions of football supporters attending a game and supporting their team will be a massive step towards the new normal.

Maidstone United is, and will always be, a club deeply committed to the community it represents and the closure of the Gallagher has meant that thousands of people have not been able to gather to watch or play the game that they love.

We are working hard to get all elements of the business operating, as the club is suffering from the complete shutdown of all our income streams.

The most high profile of all our activities is of course the first team which drives the whole business model.

If the first team is doing well we find recruiting academy students is more successful, we find our player development squad numbers increase and, of course, we get bigger crowds through the gates.

On the flip side if we don’t get things right on the pitch, then financially and emotionally life can be dire.

Our three seasons in the National League were a struggle and I also felt last season was a great disappointment.

Despite the difficulties of the last four seasons, we have always made sure that the business is profitable and viable.

We will continue to take a sensible approach to how we run the club and are prudent about the money we spend.

One of the first decisions we have made is regarding the playing budget for the 20/21 season because our retention and recruitment will not progress unless we have a financial framework to work with.

We have contacted players we feel could be right for the team, initially to establish their thoughts about whether they would prefer to train three mornings or two evenings a week.

Our findings were clear in that the majority of the players we spoke to wanted to train three mornings.

There was no evidence that this would force the playing budget upwards but it was evident that the players we wanted were ambitious and wanted to make football their main source of income.

For Maidstone United to continue this training regime is a major statement of our intention to get back to the National League. Whilst our three seasons were difficult, we learned a lot and will not make the same mistakes.

The playing budget will be less than last season but because of the uncertainty around crowd numbers and start dates, we will try to be flexible and keep some funds in reserve.

In addition to the five contracted players, we are in advanced negotiations with a further four of last season’s squad.

We are keen to avoid signing the journeyman players who drift from club to club without really committing to Maidstone United, so our campaign will concentrate on more local players.

There are a substantial number of players that are of interest to us but making sure we make good signings has never been more important.

We know from telephone calls to hundreds of our supporters how vital the football club is to many people so we will ensure that we will be ready for the new season, whenever it starts. Thank you for your continued support.

Terry

The responsibility of doing our best

It’s been a difficult week at the club after that disappointing men’s first team result at Weymouth and the nature of the performance. 

We have been spending hours and hours with Terry, Bill, John and Hakan reflecting on what is currently not right and how we can fix it. Everybody has their view on what to do and we appreciate this. 

However, we have the responsibility of doing our best to operate the club successfully and put things right when needed. We know we don’t have all the answers but we are working hard.

The team struggled on Saturday because we were missing at least five key players and because the team endured a five and a half hour coach journey after a closure on the M25, arriving at the stadium less than an hour before kick-off!  All this puts huge pressure on the team. To his credit Hakan made no excuses for all this but I will. 

This week we know the players and coaches will try their damnedest to get the win, recover some self-respect and give something back to the supporters. Having said that it will not be easy. Welling are in form and we will still be missing several of our key players. It’s up to the others to show some pride and extra effort for the cause.

More generally we are suffering somewhat off the field as well. Due to overspending on the playing budget since the beginning of the season, some below par performances and a 15% drop in attendances, cash-flow is extremely tight. This reduces our room for manoeuvre. 

As I say repeatedly, we cannot and will not operate like several other clubs in the National League, where owners subsidise annual losses to the tune of between £500K and £1.5M. 

We believe several clubs in National League South also run at a significant deficit. We can’t match that and sometimes it’s frustrating. 

We budget to spend less than we produce in income. It’s that simple and it will keep the club alive and kicking when others fall by the wayside.

As stated previously we are still trying to identify possible investors to help the club grow sustainably faster but for the moment we are no further than several preliminary discussions. 

We are therefore unable to create financial miracles as we toy with ways of improving performances. 

We are already considering carefully how to operate next season. Clearly there are choices and changes to consider and we hope to make an announcement about all that shortly. 

In the meantime all Terry, Bill and I can do is to thank you for your support and please continue to get behind the team whenever you can, even when things are not going the way we all want them to. 

The club is a great club and it needs you to push behind it.

Oliver

A defining decade for the Stones

So it is Happy New Year time once again. On behalf of the directors I would like to wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful 2020 whether you are with family, friends, at work or doing what you most enjoy, watching the Stones of course.

We have just ended an amazing decade in the life of the club. Back in January 2010 we were coming to the end of our tether and by August the Maidstone United train had hit the buffers.

Ten years on and we have a fantastic stadium in a great location near the town centre and we have enjoyed progress on and off the field for most of the decade. It really has been an extraordinary ride.

Thank you to all the fans. Those from yesteryear and then the wilderness years, and also all those who have joined the party at the Gallagher Stadium and supported the club on its recent journey.

Thank you to our business partners, in particular Gallagher Group, Britelite, Gullands, Shepherd Neame, Compare and Recycle, Rockingham Reins, Genco, Churchill Security, Manchett Facilities, Henry Reeves and Co, Simon Miller and Haynes who have stayed with us and supported us faithfully over the decade and thus enabled us to play at National League level.

Thank you to all the volunteers who have stood by us and with us and worked tirelessly to raise the profile and prosperity of the club. Thank you to our staff, who give everything for the cause and have done throughout the dramas of ten long years. Thank you all.

We have come a long way but there is still a long way to go. The challenge is to remain patient, be proud of the sustainable business model and community club we have and enjoy the football played at National South and National League level.

Accept that it will not always be the beautiful game. Understand how tough it is to survive financially when we are unable and unwilling to throw money we don’t have at the playing budget, while other clubs at this level and above spend hundreds of thousands of pounds which they don’t earn.

It’s frustrating trying to compete with these clubs but that’s just how it is right now. Maybe it is for the best. However, we do appreciate that because of these limitations not every aspect of how we run the club will please all of you all the time. All we can do is ask for patience and understanding. Everybody at the club is a supporter and we are always trying to do our best.

As you know we recently announced a plan to try and find new investment to enable us to grow sustainably, faster. Our strategic plan, the success of which will depend on this new investment, is to develop the stadium to enable us to increase our recurring commercial and football revenues.

We also want to keep developing the community side of the club including the women, disability and the youth football sections and ensure all this remains a valuable asset to the local area.

It’s a heck of a challenge for us to remain sustainable and to achieve a promotion to the EFL within the next decade. However, I believe that it is absolutely feasible and that this coming decade can be every bit as exciting for Maidstone United as the last one has been.

We have had plenty to cheer over the past ten years. I won’t bore you by discussing every memorable match in detail because like me you’ve probably watched most of the games fifty times already.

So instead, before I go, I’d like to name my team of the decade and invite you to comment and challenge my selections on social media.

I haven’t gone for any players from the last 12 months because it’s a bit too soon for this season and last season is generally best forgotten. However, I really hope by the end of this season some of our current players will have progressed from ‘favourites’ to ‘legends’.

Goalkeeper: Lee Worgan. Lee was outstanding for us over several years and played in two of our amazing three promotions in four years. He was a real club man and got involved in coaching and soccer schools. Became an official Stones legend for one particular penalty save and subsequent celebration.

Right Back: Jamie Coyle. OK, so I’m playing Jamie slightly out of position here but we’re overloaded with centre-back legends and Jamie was versatile enough to play right back. He was a strong defender and a stalwart for us for a couple of seasons. He was a leader too on the field and is now developing a good coaching career off it. In the runner-up position were other good players and characters like Seth Twumasi, Callum Driver and Richard Davies, who looked so promising before injury did for him.

Centre-Back: Steve Watt. Watty is a shoo-in for a centre back spot. Such a strong header of the ball, excellent reader of the game and a forceful communicator, who set a fine example with his commitment. A core part of our successful run. A club legend.

Centre-Back: Sonny Miles. It is to Sonny’s credit that he beats Lokko, De Havilland, Okuonghae, Finney, Parry, not to mention Elokobi, to this position. Very effective, always gave his heart for the club and played with total commitment. One of those who made you feel his heart was made of amber.

Left-Back: Tom Mills. Tom came up through the ranks and played for us for years and years, a good, solid defender, improved season on season and always reliable. Some spectacular goals were the icing on the cake. He beats Joe Anderson and the adaptable Bobby-Joe Taylor to the spot.

Right-Midfield/Wing: Zavon Hines. Zavon was only with us for a three-month period in 2017 but what a time that was. He was one of the best players ever to appear for the Stones and when he wanted to perform he was unstoppable. Some sublime moments of skill and great goals (Eastleigh away anybody?). He outdoes stiff competition from the dependable Matt Bodkin with Vas Karagiannis also close to featuring.

Centre-Midfield: Stuart Lewis. It’s a tough position to pick with so many good and popular players competing. Stuart wore his heart on his sleeve as well as the captain’s armband. Always showing a good example with his tireless running box to box. His signing in early 2017 saw a massive turnaround in our fortunes and we ended the NL campaign strongly.

Centre-Midfield: James Rogers. A credit to him for seeing off competition from other memorable club midfielders such as Danny Lye, Reece Prestedge, Micky Phillips, Jack Paxman, Jai Reason and Joe Healy, not to mention Jay Saunders. James was an old-fashioned ball-winner for the Stones and he commanded the midfield for a couple of terrific seasons. A real Stones legend.

Left-Midfield/Wing: Alex Flisher. What a player he was for the Stones. Skilful and with a huge heart he was the sort of player you would travel far and wide to see. A real eye for goal and a fabulous left foot. Good enough to keep Blair Turgott and Jamar Loza out of the side, both of whom were excellent for the club.

Striker: Joe Pigott. His performances lifted us in 2017, we were not the same side without him. Perhaps the best signing of that period. A strong, skilful striker, he could score out of nothing, as those of us who witnessed his stunning opener against Dagenham in February 2017 would affirm. Now doing well a few levels above. Good luck to him. One of our own.

Striker: Frannie Collin. A Stones legend goal-poacher, who will always be remembered for his winner against Stevenage, fortunately before VAR was invented. Was a key part of our climb from the depths of the pyramid and fans took him to their hearts, like they did to most of these players. Close runners-up were Jay May and Shaun Welford, two talented strikers who played their hearts out for us, and also Ian Draycott.

Manager: Jay Saunders. Well, who else? Seven memorable seasons as gaffer. Many of these players were his recruits, he certainly knew how to get them to play for us.

Head of Football: Bill Williams. Still the wisest footballing mind in the office. An invaluable source of support, advice and encouragement for Terry and me over the past ten years.

Well, that was fun to do, not easy to make team selections, brings back many good memories. I would certainly love to see that team in its prime out on the field again.

All that remains is for me to wish you a Happy New Year and a Happy New Decade and Come on you Stones!

Oliver Ash

Dead and Bury’d

So after death throes worthy of a B movie murder scene and with a Parliamentary Committee picking over the bones and extracting embarrassing platitudes from EFL and FA executives, it looks like Bury FC are finally gone – kicked into hell by a succession of shady and inadequate owners and a book full of inadequate rules and regulations.

What can be gathered from snippets of information and from news reports of unlikely white knights, dropping out as they realise the extent of the financial debris cluttering the club, is that nothing can be gathered. 

Bury have been stripped bare and left for dead. There is virtually nothing remaining. The stadium has been mortgaged to the hilt and eye-watering fee payments made to shady, off-shore companies using the club’s precious monies; even the car park has been sold. Opening the cupboards at Gigg Lane reveals a plethora of skeletons.

What has happened to Bury has led to a crescendo of angry fans turning on their owners, to a stream of pundits and journalists turning on the EFL and EFL clubs for approving the system of rules and regulation which failed to protect Bury, nearly failed to protect Bolton and Blackpool and may yet turn out to have failed to protect other vulnerable clubs like Oldham or Notts County.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have great sympathy for Bury fans. They are the innocent ones. At least they are alive and kicking and will fight back, survive and prosper again, as Maidstone United fans eventually did after our own liquidation event in 1992. 

However I have no sympathy and still less understanding for all the one-tracked crocodile weepies who complain that all would be right if only the Premier League gave lower league clubs more money. This is just nonsense. The only winners would be players whose salaries would inflate to absorb the additional funds. Do you really think club owners would do anything else with the cash?

The solutions to helping the fans of League 1 and 2 and National League clubs to avoid the fall-out from financial collapses shouldn’t have to depend on hand-outs from the Premier League, who already contribute vast sums to grassroots football and to lower league pro football. They require new administration by an independent body, not beholden to club owners’ self-interest, and missioned to develop and protect the game as a whole. 

To do this they need to have regard for the unique depth of pro football in England with its 115 pro clubs, but be prepared to consider creative ways of making it more efficient, sustainable, responsible, appropriate for today’s world and safer for supporters, for many of whom their football club is not just a big part of their life, it is their life. 

They should consider, for example, making two regional divisions out of League 2 and National League, saving the hugely expensive and polluting journeys undertaken by clubs, extreme examples of which would include Dover travelling 400 miles to Barrow to play in front of barely one thousand fans.

They should toughen up rules on fit and proper owners – this is a no-brainer and one can only wonder why it has taken the Bury debacle for it to be so high on everybody’s agenda now. How about zero tolerance for any previous convictions or bankruptcies whatsoever? 

They should level up competition and reduce pressure on owners to spend more money on player salaries than their clubs can afford by setting division-wide salary caps and policing them rigorously.

There should be tough budgeting rules pre-season limiting what clubs can spend to what income is verifiably due or guaranteed in advance by owners. Talk to the French Rugby Federation for goodness sake, who administer similar rules in their top two divisions and make them work.

Then they should grab the low-hanging fruit. By allowing 3G pitches in League 1 and 2 they will open the door to clubs adding some £300-500k per annum to their net revenues. This is life-changing. This could prevent a second Bury. 

We all know these pitches are used in international competition and are of the highest quality. They are completely safe. The only difference is the bounce and roll is slightly different but then so is it on many bog-like League 2 pitches. Ask any fan of the National League clubs using 3G pitches: Sutton Utd, Bromley, Harrogate and my club Maidstone, whether they enjoy watching football on 3G pitches and you will receive a huge thumbs up. These clubs have enjoyed great success and prosperity using 3G pitches.

So now a new and progressive independent regulator should boot into touch the conservatism and prejudice of some clubs and other administrators and open the door to 3G pitches. Otherwise it’s pure hypocrisy, crocodile tears and ultimately, a further kick in the nuts for the fans.

Oliver

Still grounds for optimism

It’s difficult enough when the business you run struggles after so many successful years but when that business is the football team that you support, it makes life almost unbearable.

I know how the fans have felt over the past three years in the National League and although we enjoyed the feeling of relief when we stayed up in the first year, since then life as a supporter of the Stones has been testing at times.

As owners we have felt the financial impact of trying to stay in the National League. In previous years we have carried our profits into the next season and used the money for building works and improving the facilities.

We did, however, make a miscalculation when we increased playing budget by about 20% at the start of the 2018/2019 season. We felt this would guarantee our survival at this very competitive level, help to sustain attendances and see us push on to mid table and maybe even flirt with the playoffs.

The reality, as we now know, was the polar opposite, with a miserable season ending in relegation.

We have learned from our mistakes and will continue to learn.

Our business model will never be in a position to compete with the likes of Salford and Leyton Orient. In previous seasons, we have also been plagued with trying to compete against clubs who have thrown money into a playing squad and inflating the financial expectations of players.

While we are desperate to win matches for ourselves and the supporters it cannot be done at all costs, which would put the club’s long-term stability at risk.

I have absolutely no doubt that John and Hakan will bring the Gallagher back to life and bring a team together that we can be proud of.

The players we have signed so far have all demonstrated the same eagerness to play for Maidstone United, with one of the big reasons for signing being the reputation of the supporters.

I was humbled by the support and kind words I have received and the massive optimism that supporters show despite everything we have had to put up with.

Here’s to 2019/2020 being a season to remember for all the right reasons.

Terry Casey