It has been another difficult week on a personal level. Many of you will be aware that I have spent much of the past week in Stoke Mandeville Hospital where I have been cared for by the wonderful people that work for our struggling NHS, struck down by food poisoning – my own cooking as it turns out! At times I was so bad I could not even find the energy to think about the football club, but I am now feeling so much better and looking forward to reporting back to duty.
However, it has been a wake-up call. Firstly, I would like to say a huge thank you to the incredible amount of well wishes I got from supporters and my fellow directors, it is humbling to know that there are such decent and caring people out there in our community. It has also made me realise how it is important to have good people around the club, and work to get more help and support in what we are trying to achieve. With plenty of thinking time in my hospital bed, along with some excellent discussions and message exchanges, over the coming days and weeks I will be using my Friday notes and the matchday programme to share details of some of the areas around the club where we are looking for more people to get involved.
One of the key positions I would like to fill is a Supporters Liaison Officer. Maybe the name does not need to be so fancy, we can work on that, but I think everyone would benefit if we had one recognised person who can channel supporters’ questions, queries and even complaints directly through to the Board so that they get listened to and answered.
I have always wanted us to be transparent and accessible, but appreciate that is not always easy and more often than not the messages are coming directly to myself, which is fine, but it does put more pressure on me to keep on top of responses when I have willing board members keen to help out in this area. If supporters had one person they could speak to, call or email knowing that that person can take their comments directly to the appropriate person on the Board, I think that will help to develop understanding and relationships between supporters and the main club. If you are interested in being that person, please contact myself in the first instance at chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk – I know there is some irony in saying contacting myself, but the role will be delegated!
Another area we are looking to deliver on is expanding the access to play football under the Chesham United umbrella and we will be looking to work with the FA on achieving that. We have a team that work in the background on the One Chesham project to align our girls, women’s and youth set ups, but community football goes beyond that in 2025.
For example, did you know there are 9.4m people in England with a long-standing limiting disability, illness or condition which equates to 18 per cent of the population – almost one in five. The FA are committed to delivering a range of opportunities that sustain and grow opportunities for disabled people to participate and excel through football – here at Chesham United we want to help them to achieve that. Yes that will be much easier if we get to move to our new ground, but we need to get the wheels turning now. There are many more projects like this that I want us to participate in, even lead the way in, to ensure the future of Chesham United is about more than just the First XI on a Saturday afternoon.
Talking of which, Tuesday night saw us lose our unbeaten run with a 2-1 defeat at Farnborough, a result which reminds you just how challenging this league is and how form interpretations can change so quickly. With that one result we have gone from being unbeaten since before Christmas to having not won any of our last four games! With very few exceptions, every game has been incredibly close this season, certainly the smallest slither of luck and we would have beaten both Bath City and Chelmsford City away, two games we looked the better side in but were unable to get across the line. It is fantastic to be in such a competitive league.
Tomorrow we host Weymouth at The Meadow. Another big club, but they currently find themselves bottom of the league, some twelve points from safety. They will be fired up to get a result to start their recovery and your support will be needed to help our boys get our own overdue win. The game in Dorset earlier in the season finished 1-1 and tomorrow promises to be another cracker, so get yourself along, kick-off is at 3.00pm, the bar will be open, Billy Burger will be there and the Tea Bar will be serving up tasty treats – it sounds like the perfect Saturday afternoon.
Chesham’s women delivered another important point on Sunday against QPR FC Women with a 0-0 draw at The Meadow. With last weekend’s 5-2 win against Cambridge that now means they’ve delivered 8 points from a possible 12 and are unbeaten in 4. They sit in 10th place (out of 12) but with 2 to go down and a cushion of 8 points they’re building some terrific late season momentum to keep Chesham in the 4th tier next season.
Thank you for your support, this week more than any other.
Peter Brown
