Good evening. Tonight we welcome a strong Leeds United under 21’s side to Meadow Park, and we wish the directors, manager, players and supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
As a new season begins for our small community club, we hope once again that hope really does spring eternal. After last season’s wonderful campaign fell just short in the very last minutes at Wembley, we have every right to dream.
It’s important for me to quietly say to you people once again that this club is absolutely nothing without you all, and without your collective influence, help, care and support, we would decline very quickly, and I would probably not be here.
We are, though, a well-run and settled club, and as such we enter this season in good spirits and in good health, both on and off the field of play. Once again, I consider us to be an underdog club based on our support base, but one with a burning ambition and desire to go one better than we did last season – and for that to happen, many things have to align.
It’s my job behind the scenes to find ways to improve the small margins that will allow us to overcome those final obstacles and give us more of a chance to take our place in the EFL. If we can do that, then in my opinion we will not come back – but it is a big if…
The ground, pitch and facilities have, in my opinion, never looked better. The squad has never had this type of quality and therein lies my optimism and hope for a more than successful campaign.
To my many partners and sponsors, you all know who you are. Your support over so many years, and more recently in helping me with the planning application and assisting me in seeking third-party funding at the South End of the ground, simply shows me why I’m so fortunate to have true community people, local visionaries and wider partners who are fair, kind and always see the bigger picture – especially with a little push or cajoling from me.
That bigger picture, after years in the planning and design stage, has already started off the pitch, possibly because of my own impatience and the club’s drive to move forward over the last two years. In truth, the next stage of building my dream of a four-sided EFL stadium is already underway. That spade in the ground began in earnest during the post-season, and I’ll complete the project before the start of next season.
So, before this season’s league table starts to take shape in earnest, can I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support on the opening day – it was, in fact, a record home crowd for us. Can I also thank you again for your emails, letters, cards, texts, kindness and care after our loss at Wembley? Trust me, boy did I need them…
My message to you all now, though, never changes and remains consistent: this is our Club, our Town and our Community. I’m very, very lucky to have a growing fan base, such committed staff around me, and to have Luke and the dressing room ready to represent us every weekend and every midweek.
My dream doesn’t change, and my vision is to one day deliver to my Club, Town and Community the chance to watch a Football League game here at Meadow Park. I hope I can achieve that in my lifetime. I pray my staff and this dressing room are the people who can take me and you there.
So, as I said at the start of my notes, “hope springs eternal.”
Finally, whoever you support this evening, let’s hope for an open, attacking game, and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny
