Chairman's Notes

Chairman’s notes: Chippenham Town (H)

23 January 2025

Today we welcome Chippenham Town to the Mangata Pay UK stadium. May I wish their Directors, Manager and players an enjoyable stay with us and a safe journey home.

Well after being close to the top of the form guide over the last three months, we have put ourselves bang in the middle of the promotion conversation, and after putting in honest away performances especially in December and January away at Bath City, Chelmsford City, Enfield Town and Welling United that resulted in 12 points in 4 away games, it looks like we’re now in it to win it.

In that time we also went down to Weymouth in the FA Trophy, rested five big players from the previous starting Xl, whilst still being without the inured Erico Sousa, Junior Dixon, Tyrone Marsh and Femi Ilesanmi. We won the game 2-1 with a bit to spare and results like that will give Luke the confidence to mix his starting Xl up at Aldershot in the last 16 of the FA Trophy, if he feels it will help our promotion push.

Our recent player recruitment has meant we are now looking much stronger, with some of our younger players starting to gain vital match experience and some much needed game management. These are I feel important factors into why we are now grinding out wins in tight games and winning ugly.

In truth I also think we’ve improved our fitness levels, our work ethic, our togetherness and our quality over the last three or four months and that showed itself last Saturday down at Welling and again on Tuesday evening at home to Hampton, where both games were won pretty comfortably against two resolute, hard-working and well organised teams.

Luke 11 days ago mixed up his starting Xl at Wormley Rovers in the Herts Senior Cup – but by resting 12 senior players four days before the Welling game and using 9 academy players within the squad, the game proved a step too far for our youngsters and we exited the competition.

Put simply the message within the dressing room is, nothing must get in the way of our promotion push, as such we arrive here today against Chippenham Town sitting top of the league, full of confidence after overcoming a poor start to the season. We are a tad fresher after Luke’s recent squad rotations and now have momentum on our side after taking our unbeaten run to 14 in both League and FA Trophy.

That said, we know will face a well organised and hard-working Chippenham Town here today, who boast a top 7 away record in the division and so must be given the utmost of respect. After today we then travel to Worthing on Tuesday to play one of our promotion challengers to end what has been a very busy January.

So, as we enter the second half of the season, we know we have an improved squad, and recent results now mean it has become difficult to play down our title ambitions, as it’s clear to everyone that we are now going full tilt for the League and half tilt for a Quarter Final spot in the FA Trophy.

This afternoon we face another banana skin, as those who travelled down to Chippenham can tell you. We really struggled to take control of that game at times, however we worked hard, found a way to just about edge it, and nicked a 1-0 win curtesy of a set piece Kwesi Appiah header.

Our squad as I’ve said, has evolved nicely over the last three or four months and will include Jayden Richardson, Jon Benton and Matt Rush this afternoon. Jayden was with Aberdeen last season, Matt Rush we managed to take from Sutton United and Jon Benton we took from Solihull Moors.

All three were signed on free’s and In truth we are delighted to secure the services of three young, very talented footballers, who we believe can help us challenge for promotion. Jayden in my opinion has slipped into the right wing back role seamlessly, Jon has added energy, legs and guile to our midfield and Matt has already found the net five times after making his debut in our New Years Day win against Slough Town.

Matt that day helped himself to a debut brace and along with Abdul Abdulmalik, turned what was a tight game against Slough Town on its head, as we went from 1-1 to 5-1 very quickly. That type of impact, alongside Kwezi getting himself another hat trick, meant we battered Slough in the last half hour and it could have been six, seven or eight.

On the exit side of things, we received an offer for striker Lee Ndlovu two weeks ago from Barnet and after discussions with Luke and Charlie, decided to accept what was a reasonable offer for a player who would of been out of contract in just over 12 weeks.

In truth Lee had already made it clear to me personally, that he was not going to sign a new contract and so we made the decision to sell him, take the fee and possibly look at signing Junior Dixon on a permanent from Birmingham City.

I personally feel we are working smarter within the current transfer market compared to the last few seasons and feel with our new strike force and attacking midfield options, we now have a nice mixture of legs, guile, goals, youth, experience and strength.

With Erico Sousa also now nearing full fitness, I feel our attacking strength will continue to have an impact on the promotion race going forward and believe our new signings and strength from the bench could ultimately make the difference. As It is clear that our substitutes are becoming game changers, who have helped us recently get big wins away at Bath City, Chelmsford City, Enfield Town and Welling Utd, whilst also getting us results in the FA Trophy.

So as we near completion of our January fixtures, I hope we continue to show our defensive qualities, our improved game management, as well as our attacking strength and renewed player confidence, which I feel has been brought about by our mid season mini squad rebuild.

I told you all some months ago, what I felt was needed across the club, and I hope through positive messaging that you understand, that any squad rebuild in mid season can only ever be about evolution not revolution. I know talk is cheap in football, but between Luke, Charlie and myself we’ve quietly managed to sign three very good players in mid-season who at present are all in the starting Xl and gone from 11th to top of the table in that time.

In that period, we’ve lost just once in the league since November, remained unbeaten in December and January, whilst also progressing to the last 16 in the FA Trophy. We’ve now taken 32 points from our last 13 league games and averaged 2.46 points per game since the start of November…. So I cannot be anything other than pleased.

Following our recruitment, we’ve also had a return of some of our injured players, as such the squad had became slightly bloated in certain areas which meant we could control the budget better by allowing John Goddard to return to Slough Town, Cameron Coxe to go on loan to Salisbury and agree Lee Ndlovu being sold to Barnet.

I genuinely feel after what has been a difficult last 12 months and problematic start to our season, that we have through experience, character, hard work, further investment and a bit of old fashioned fight, clawed our way back into this seasons promotion race. Which means I’m now (almost) happy with our squad strength, (almost) happy with our player quality, and very happy with our recent recruits and results.

The positive messaging and mindset change of key staff has also helped me, the club, my partners and our dressing room to move forward. As everyone at present is buying into what we’re trying to achieve here both on and off the field, and that collective spirit is joyful and bringing us all together.

I now sense a united club, a united dressing room and a united support base, who will not overreact to the odd poor result, and I sense our club and dressing room now genuinely expect to be there or thereabouts come the business end of the season. I feel as a club we are enjoying the pressure of being a promotion challenger. and I’m just thankful to be back in the title race.

My belief is, it will now take a very good points total, team and club to take the title from us…. That said If any team is better than us come the seasons end, then there will no complaints or excuses from me.

As we close in on February, we know our investment strength, know our squad strength, know our quality, know our fitness levels and know our mindsets are strong. Trust me we will stay grounded; we will collectively picture the finishing line and focus on the 20 league games in front of us.

All of the above means we’ll be fighting every inch of the way to April 27th to win a title but if need be we’ll be ready for the play offs. Only through a managerial change, unity, investment, good recruitment and renewed belief, are we now in a position to enjoy a club defining next three months.

So let me finish by saying, this sense of collective achievement is why I’m in football…. “let the madness and mind games begin.”

Take care,

Danny.

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