It is back to normality this weekend when we welcome Worthing to The Meadow for a league match, after the very surreal past couple of weeks when we have been living and breathing preparations for the FA Cup match against Lincoln City live on national and international TV on Monday night. What a fantastic experience it was, so much hard work went on behind the scenes to put on such a superb, well-attended, event, the words do not exist to express my gratitude. It was an unbelievable team effort.
I know what was involved in making it such a great occasion and I think everyone has done a superb job, of which I am very proud of. However, the greatest pride comes from hearing from the opposition supporters and officials, the national media involved, the company who set up all the TV gantry’s, the ITV staff, the stewards and the local police, how they all found Chesham United, and the people involved, such a pleasure to meet and work with. That means so much more than the result on the pitch. On social media and other places online you’ll find numerous YouTube videos and positive comments, the attention brought to the town has been wonderful.
The people to thank are too numerous, but I must give a special mention to Ryan Woolnough and his endless hours spent with the ticketing, the FA and the media to work through all the logistics to make everything run so seamless and help to paint the club in a very professional light. It is also too easy to forget that last Friday night we also had the fantastic fireworks display which itself is a massive job to host. To that end I must also give a big shout out to Tanya and her bar team for their time, organisation and superb service over a long weekend that involved logistical changes to the clubhouse operation, again all went seamlessly. There are many others that I know contributed to the occasion, that we could not have done without. Thank you.
On the night, we came up against a very good League One side who, despite us having an excellent first 40 minutes, arguably looking the better team, were ultimately too strong and too experienced for us. I believe we put on a good display though and the players should be very proud of how they represented the club and we have a squad and management duo that can do great things at this club over the coming months and years.
Equally, what a fantastic crowd we had, to see The Meadow packed with nearly 4,000 football fans was wonderful to see and again just highlighted the potential I know this club has. However, I still cannot fathom what goes on in the mind of the person(s) who, despite all the warnings (or even just using an ounce of common-sense) thought it would be a good idea to reward the weeks of hard work by so many people by doing something as idiotic as throwing a flare on to the pitch, on live television! When we have worked so hard to convey our club in a good light. I just cannot believe there are people that would think like that.
Please, we love the growing support we are getting, and it is fantastic, but think about your actions. Think about what it does for the club and think about what it does to the people that work so hard behind the scenes. The person in question is being dealt with, as were the two kids who chose to run on the pitch – they spent a very uncomfortable evening with the police. We are currently waiting to hear from the FA about the fines we will receive from the FA for these actions of these individuals, it could be as much as £5,000. However, these were just two foolish incidents that we will not let spoil what was a wonderful night, creating so many fantastic memories for the town.
Now, it is back to the bread and butter of the league where, despite the FA Cup distractions, we are positioning ourselves closer to play-off contention than a relegation battle, and that is a position we will be looking to maintain for the remainder of the season. If we can retain some of the new visitors that came to the Lincoln City game, and regularly attract gates in excess of 1,000, I see no reason why we cannot do that.
Worthing tomorrow are one of the sides with a very real eye on promotion this season having narrowly missed out last year and despite a relatively slow start, are on an excellent run of form and we will need to be at our very best to pick up the points. Please come along and support the team, I hope you agree they deserve the support of another big crowd tomorrow after their efforts on Monday night.
In addition to our FA Cup game against Lincoln City, the Women’s team were also in action in the first round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup on Sunday afternoon. They travelled to Fulham FC Women and despite their best efforts couldn’t come back to Chesham as winners of a place in the hat for the second round. This weekend they turn their focus back on the league as they take on Chatham Town Women on Sunday afternoon at The Meadow. Well done also to Chesham’s over 40 women’s walking football team! They travelled to St George’s Park last weekend to compete against all the other regional winners in the FA Walking Football Cup finals (having won the Southern Region competition). They ended the day in 3rd place behind Nottingham Forest and Bolton.
Meanwhile our Under 18’s are also performing fantastically, unbeaten this season, they thrashed Amersham Town 7-1 last night, having given Berkhamsted a similar beating the previous week. They are in the ¼ finals of both the B&B U18 and The League Cup. They play their matches on a Thursday evening; entrance is just £5 to watch some great football and cast your eye over stars of the future.
With so much going on we are creating a position for an apprentice Kit Man to join the football set-up to provide support to Fred our kit man and learn all about what is involved in the job. It will not be a paid position, although you will get free access to all matches, but it is an excellent opportunity for a young person looking to get into a sports work environment and in need of some experience. For more information, contact me at chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk.
A reminder also that as a club we are looking for our supporters to help to give less fortunate families in the area a Christmas they might not otherwise afford. With so many home games coming up, we will be arranging collections at all our home games, in association with Chiltern Foodbank.
Financial Donations are always appreciated, cash cards for the supermarkets are very useful as the Foodbank can get what they need when they need it (any amount is welcome) and advent calendars (presuming they have them by December) are also a good inclusion. In addition, Chiltern Foodbank are putting together hampers which require tinned ham, tinned salmon, chocolate biscuits, Christmas cake, Christmas sweets, instant coffee, chutney/pickles, cooking oil, UHT milk and generally any sustainable tinned food is welcome. However, they do not currently need baked beans or dried pasta, and it goes without saying that all items must be within the sell by date. Please do get behind this effort and let’s use our raised publicity for the club from the FA Cup to raise awareness of other great causes in our area.
Thank you for your support, I look forward to seeing you back at The Meadow tomorrow.
Peter Brown
