Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year and got to spend some time with loved ones over the festive period. As I write this from my office in London it is finally starting to turn cold and actually feel like winter, hopefully we will not be impacted by too many postponements as there is a bit of momentum in the club currently.

Firstly, on behalf of the club we would just like to send our well wishes to Linda Eales, an important lady in our club and we hope you are back on your feet soon and coming along to cheer the lads on.

Following on from my optimism last month results didn’t quite turn out as we had wished and we suffered a number of heavy defeats in the early weeks of December, which caused us as a committee to seek additional support. I am pleased to say that Danny Macintosh joined the club in the middle of December. He has delved into what I have since seen as a lengthy list of contacts and has brought in a number of players to help the club. We badly needed more players and we are now focusing on embedding these players into our club structure with a management team for both sides that I am sure can take the teams forward and reap the benefits.

In Danny’s first match in supporting Gary Hammond we were up against local rivals Harpole and we had a bumper crowd down the playing fields in the week between Christmas and New Year. They were treated to well contested 1-1 draw. After the season we have had this was a much welcomed point for the Blue’s. It is also the first time since I returned to the club 6 years ago that we have taken any points at all from Harpole. There have only been a smattering of games since then due to a certain somebody going off and getting married, and also the Christmas period. Both teams lost 2-1 in the last weekend (12th Jan). For the first team it was against current Champions Moulton and the reserves lost by the same score line at Finedon.  However, the results here don’t tell the story – both teams had 15 in their squad – the first time that has happened in a number of years and there were certainly much better performances that gives us hope and optimism for future games. So welcome to the new players and I hope you enjoy your time here at Heyford, we are delighted you are on board.

I wont put any focus on the youth sides in this article – we currently have 4 teams and I am proud of each and every one of them. The time the coaches dedicate to making these young people better players is humbling. I am asked a lot by people about whether we will have new teams. So I wanted to say in our local news letter that yes. As a club I am happy to support the set-up of any new youth teams – it is, simply put the future of the club… we want boy and girls of all ages to become a part of our club and join our teams or help set up new ones. You will have my full support and that of a fantastic committee and secretary to do everything they can to help you. However, I can only do this if I have volunteers to run these sides. Without them these things cannot happen. I can have all the children ready to play, but without a coach it just isn’t feasible. So if your child is wanting to play and you think you can spare the time to run a team (ultimately this would involve training once a week and a game on the weekend) then please get in touch. Or if you are reading this thinking you would love to run a team but don’t know how then again, get in touch and we can have a chat.

Finally, I wanted to mention a fundraising event coming up in March. We will be holding our first Comedy Night at the Village Hall on 16th March. We have 3 great acts for you on the evening and tickets are costing just £10. The bar will be provided by the Foresters and a great evening should be had by all. Tickets will be available from The Foresters and Brian Edgington.

Hopefully next month I can give you news of positive results, but please come and see for yourselves, a friendly welcome and a cup of tea is always provided down the club – and there is a bar if you would like a pint 🙂

Gary McMahon – Chairman – 07801 276488