Another week and another four vital league points gained as we continue our quest for promotion, and we head into tomorrow’s home game against Merthyr Town sitting on the top of the table. A good place to be, although there is no prize for being top in December.
Tuesday was a tough game at home against a resilient Tiverton Town side, there is no doubt that sides are coming to The Meadow looking to make it difficult for us to play and we are having to show great patience to await our opportunities to strike, something we are doing very successfully more often than not. Thanks in no small part to strikes from Ricardo German who with 22 goals so far this season would already have been our top goalscorer in nine of the last fifteen seasons! That is an incredible achievement, and I am very proud of how our football management team have worked with Ricardo to turn him into the league’s most prolific goalscorer, and it is great to see him play with such a smile on his face.
Talking of which, how fantastic was it to see Bradley Clayton get back on the pitch on Tuesday night? Heading into the busy winter period it is great to see Brad recovering from a long injury lay off and slotting in nicely to the team when he came on the pitch. A real boost to everyone.
Those of you at the game on Tuesday would have heard me on the tannoy having a bit of fun with announcing the crowd for the game. Declared attendances have always been a strange one but this season it seems to be more noticeable than ever the different way clubs measure an attendance.
To me it is just that, the number of people in attendance, there, watching the game, not tickets sold.
At Totton last weekend the official crowd was well over 1,000, there was at least half that “in attendance”, but they chose to include a number of youth season ticket holders, even though they were not at the game. That is different to how we do it, after all, we too have given out hundreds of season tickets to our youth teams and if we counted those every week we will be having home crowds similar to those in the early 1990’s!
I’m sure there is no right or wrong, but as I say, I see it as those people at a game watching, which will include sponsors, guests, volunteers, officials and Life Vice Presidents – not just the number of tickets sold. With every club recording it differently it is very difficult to get a feel for how crowds are across the league, and whether they are up or down on previous seasons. Even at Chesham, attendances have probably been measured in different ways across the years making it difficult to compare, but we are certainly seeing an increase compared to recent years. Undoubtedly success on the field, being top of the league as I wite this, has a big impact on gates, but I like to think our community driven One Chesham initiative and our improved interaction with other sections of the club has also played a role.
Sales of replica shirts are now well over 900, could we hit 1,000 before the end of the year? This week saw the launch of our new third strip, a white kit that is proving popular and has been excellently modelled by Alex Horne across social media – with three shirts to now choose from, I’d like to think there is one there for everybody!
The Supporters’ Trust had their AGM this week, I know that they are keen to increase their membership so if you are not yet a member, please do get in touch with them and get signed up. It is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario I imagine, the more members and volunteers they are able to recruit, the more they will be able to do for supporters around the club and act as a wider voice for those of you on the terraces. The whole club is predominantly run by volunteers, and as you know from my weekly notes, we are always on the lookout for more. Whether you choose to get involved via the Supporters’ Trust, or directly with the club, any help you can offer would be welcomed.
I have spoken about the need for help with distribution of replica shirts, but there are always other admin tasks or maintenance jobs that it would be great if we had a wider pool of people to turn to for help with. Or maybe you have identified something that you think you can improve around the club, or know somebody who would be able to help. For example, we are always looking to improve our marketing of matches around the town and across our club sections and get match posters on display in more places. If you can help with that, or know anybody that can, I would love to hear from you. We don’t have a huge marketing budget, but we are most definitely willing to talk to any local marketing business that may be able to assist, it is important that we keep building on what we are creating.
On that note, I was delighted this week to have one volunteer who very kindly spent six hours deep cleaning the toilets in the clubhouse and he will be returning with a tin of gloss paint to finish the job off nicely. That gesture is hugely appreciated, and a great example of how one-off jobs can make all the difference.
Thank you once again for your tremendous support, home and away, it is appreciated and I know it is tough during the cold winter months, but we really are on the cusp of some really exciting times here at The Meadow and I want us all to be a part of it. Through thick and thin, good times and bad. Together we can do great things. One Club.
Peter Brown, Chairman