More frustration this week as we were unable to play our league match against Tiverton on Saturday due to a frozen pitch, however we were able to take to the field on Tuesday evening to record a very impressive 2-1 win over Hungerford Town in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup.

The game on Tuesday was extremely pleasing for a number of reasons. Hungerford currently play a league above us in the National League South, and are doing very well, this is a league we want to reach, and this game was an excellent test for us. Even more pleasing was the way we bounced back from going a goal down to win 2-1, that showed great character which is even more impressive when you consider how young our team was on the night, featuring a number of teenagers who did our shirt very proud.

Our reward for the efforts on Tuesday is another home game against higher league opposition once again – slightly different this time as our opponents will be Championship side Reading! This match will be played midweek before the end of February, as soon as we have the date we will let everyone know and hopefully attract a good crowd to The Meadow. The likelihood is that our opponents will not be bringing a full first team, but they will be full-time professionals and present a formidable test for our young squad – A great game in prospect.

Before all that we have another league game tomorrow, fingers crossed, away to Dorchester Town as we look to stay in touch at the top of the table and keep us in the mix for the play-offs at the end of the season. Kick-off in Dorset is 3.00pm, it would be good to have as many supporters there as possible.

Off the field I have this week, after consultation with our solicitors, written to all fellow shareholders with our plans to authorise more shares in the company and use them to enable more investment in the club and reshuffle the shareholding. The situation remains that no one person is allowed to have more than 49% of the company’s shares, we will of course continue to respect that as we restructure to maintain stability and financial security.

A reminder that we have confirmed the date for our next Sportsman’s Dinner, this will be on Thursday 21st April with our guest speaker being the legendary Tony Woodcock who made over 100 appearances for both Nottingham Forest and Arsenal, as well as over 40 appearances for England, scoring 16 goals for his country. Individual tickets for the event, including dinner and entertainment, are £70, with tables of 10 available for £600 ex-VAT. Full details on how to book will be announced shortly.

Another reminder, we have had a few entries in for a new kit design for next season, but we want more! We are looking for designs for both the home and away kit, the home kit must have white as the main colour on the top and the away kit must be predominantly yellow on the shirt – send your ideas to chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk.

Thank you as always to our volunteers that help to keep the club operating, we could not do it without you. Not all helpers are visible and can often go unappreciated, but I can assure you that every single person that does things behind the scenes is appreciated by myself and the Board. We are still looking for more volunteers to help make some of the things we do even better. I would particularly like to be able to find some additional marketing help to support those people already involved – social media updates, help with the website, working with the commercial team to promote our offerings and generally raise the profile of the club. It is not a matter of us looking to dump everything on someone, you would become a part of an excellent team, albeit a team whose time is already fully stretched and would love some more help!

Thank you as always for your support,

Peter Brown, Chairman