Post by malcolm on Apr 21, 2024 13:19:35 GMT 1
THE SEASON
As I write this before the final match of the season at Swindon Supermarine, but as I write this we are in 10th position and assured of a top half of the table placing, which is a great achievement by Craig and his players and this is despite losing at home to both the bottom two teams in the division.
It is certainly true that this has been the most successful in the club’s history just as the previous two have been and next season we should be looking forward to our 10th successive season as a Southern League club which is our longest continuous spell in this league.
We exited both the F A Trophy and the Hampshire Senior Cup at the first hurdle even though in both cases we had decent opposition to contend with. In the F A Cup we won through two rounds against lower league opposition, before losing to Maidstone United who later in the competition made national headlines with their venture into the fifth round of the competition and their victories against higher league opposition.
On the player front we retained most of last year’s squad although Callum Baughan and Archie Wiillcox left us during the course of the season and others whose departures have not been officially been announced have not featured in the latter stages of the season.
Players such as Luke Cairney, Jordan Rose, Devon Arnold, Sam Ashton, Conor Lynch, Tommy Wright and Trevor Caborn have joined the club and have certainly added to the competition for places, although Conor has been on loan to Hartley Wintney in the latter stages of the campaign..
Stuart Mott and Josh McCormick have rejoined the club and Josh’s mum Crystal whose other son Luke plays for Bristol Rovers and his lovely partner Niamh have been great supporters of the club since he rejoined.
The regular bar staff have been Ali, Eloise and Hannah with other people helping out from time to time including Samantha Beadle who used ti run the bar. Hannah’s sister Millie and Julia Drake have helped with hospitality.
Judy, Sally, Gemma and Margaret have helped provide refreshments at games and Nikki and Gerry (I better not give the more formal version of their names) and Wayne has been the stadium announcer, In keeping with playing at a higher level of football our stewarding has had to be increased and we thank the stewards for their efforts during the season with much needed higher crowds..
Our ladies and junior sections have continued to grow and we thank all the players, managers, coaches and volunteers at all levels of the club for their efforts during the season and they have been ably supported by committee members such as Phil Gough, Ken Raisbeck and John McLaren. John has had the unenviable job of rearranging the fixtures in a rain affected season, while the vastly experienced John Moody has always been on hand to offer advice to those who require it.
The club has continued to develop its’ social media presence with twitter feeds during games and a new development has been the introduction of a You Tube channel for which we thank Janek and his helpers for establishing. Rob, George, Kevin, Peter, Adam and others whose names I do not know have given the club great support both home and away and it has been good to see some younger supporters give vocal support to the team.
Stuart Munro has provided valuable finance to the club amongst his other areas of expertise and the new stand has been a significant feature of this. Completely unrelated to this Matt has continued as editor of the match programme.
Probably the most significant b development at the club this season has been the planning permission for our ground developments. It now appears certain that we have now played our last home match on grass, Hopefully the developments will be completed by the start of or next season or not very long afterwards, but watch this space for what actually happens.
On Saturday we complete our season with a trip to Swindon Supermarine an and today is our final home match of the season., and in the last week of the campaign I would like to thank everyone who has read my a articles during the season either on this board, the club website, the Hampshire Chronicle or Non League Paper
Although I mention other departing players earlier in this article one person I o omitted from this was Warren Bentley who retired after giving great service to club and earlier in the season i wrote my own tribute to warren outlining both his achievements at Winchester City and the game of football as a whole.
As I write this before the final match of the season at Swindon Supermarine, but as I write this we are in 10th position and assured of a top half of the table placing, which is a great achievement by Craig and his players and this is despite losing at home to both the bottom two teams in the division.
It is certainly true that this has been the most successful in the club’s history just as the previous two have been and next season we should be looking forward to our 10th successive season as a Southern League club which is our longest continuous spell in this league.
We exited both the F A Trophy and the Hampshire Senior Cup at the first hurdle even though in both cases we had decent opposition to contend with. In the F A Cup we won through two rounds against lower league opposition, before losing to Maidstone United who later in the competition made national headlines with their venture into the fifth round of the competition and their victories against higher league opposition.
On the player front we retained most of last year’s squad although Callum Baughan and Archie Wiillcox left us during the course of the season and others whose departures have not been officially been announced have not featured in the latter stages of the season.
Players such as Luke Cairney, Jordan Rose, Devon Arnold, Sam Ashton, Conor Lynch, Tommy Wright and Trevor Caborn have joined the club and have certainly added to the competition for places, although Conor has been on loan to Hartley Wintney in the latter stages of the campaign..
Stuart Mott and Josh McCormick have rejoined the club and Josh’s mum Crystal whose other son Luke plays for Bristol Rovers and his lovely partner Niamh have been great supporters of the club since he rejoined.
The regular bar staff have been Ali, Eloise and Hannah with other people helping out from time to time including Samantha Beadle who used ti run the bar. Hannah’s sister Millie and Julia Drake have helped with hospitality.
Judy, Sally, Gemma and Margaret have helped provide refreshments at games and Nikki and Gerry (I better not give the more formal version of their names) and Wayne has been the stadium announcer, In keeping with playing at a higher level of football our stewarding has had to be increased and we thank the stewards for their efforts during the season with much needed higher crowds..
Our ladies and junior sections have continued to grow and we thank all the players, managers, coaches and volunteers at all levels of the club for their efforts during the season and they have been ably supported by committee members such as Phil Gough, Ken Raisbeck and John McLaren. John has had the unenviable job of rearranging the fixtures in a rain affected season, while the vastly experienced John Moody has always been on hand to offer advice to those who require it.
The club has continued to develop its’ social media presence with twitter feeds during games and a new development has been the introduction of a You Tube channel for which we thank Janek and his helpers for establishing. Rob, George, Kevin, Peter, Adam and others whose names I do not know have given the club great support both home and away and it has been good to see some younger supporters give vocal support to the team.
Stuart Munro has provided valuable finance to the club amongst his other areas of expertise and the new stand has been a significant feature of this. Completely unrelated to this Matt has continued as editor of the match programme.
Probably the most significant b development at the club this season has been the planning permission for our ground developments. It now appears certain that we have now played our last home match on grass, Hopefully the developments will be completed by the start of or next season or not very long afterwards, but watch this space for what actually happens.
On Saturday we complete our season with a trip to Swindon Supermarine an and today is our final home match of the season., and in the last week of the campaign I would like to thank everyone who has read my a articles during the season either on this board, the club website, the Hampshire Chronicle or Non League Paper
Although I mention other departing players earlier in this article one person I o omitted from this was Warren Bentley who retired after giving great service to club and earlier in the season i wrote my own tribute to warren outlining both his achievements at Winchester City and the game of football as a whole.