The big day arrives

The benefit of playing on a Sunday means we are the last team from the Ryman League still in the Cup and we will be in the draw – though hopefully we will still be in the game at that time.

Good luck and best wishes have been coming in from many quarters. Alan Boon at Staines spoke to Paul and wished us all the best.  Staines have enjoyed a fine result today at Shrewbury so it can happen.

Much work has been going on by so many to make tomorrow possible.  Thanks to everyone who has helped.

Let’s hope it’s a great day tomorrow, and as for the result, well it is the FA Cup.

Now we can focus on Sunday

The run continues in anything but convincing style, but credit Harrow who are clearly are more determined outfit than what we saw last year.  But we are through and can look forward to an intriguing game at Zamaretto League leaders Farnborough Town in a few weeks time.  I also think we should credit our own players.  This was a tricky tie which we could have easily lost given the excitement of the FA Cup but without playing at our best we’ve come through, won a bit more prize money and march on.

But with the FA Trophy now put to one side us we can now fully focus on this weekend’s big events.  Ticket sales are going very well.  We will make an announcement later today but we reckon there are less than 600 tickets remaining.  The advice is buy in advance.

The FA Cup really is something else.  The press interest is like nothing else and with Nick Dugard we have been compiling a list of expected press and media people which so far is up to about 30 people including television, radio and newspapers.  There will be more yet.

There is also plenty of press activity going on with the national press including the Times, the Guardian and the Daily Star so far, local radio (in South Yorkshire as well as London) and local newspapers.  We are trying to get a number of the players involved and will try and get as many links published on our website or through the WFC Forum.

One really interesting media request has come from an independent website promoting the FA Cup called www.therealfacup.co.uk, a site written by fans that has taken off and is now getting thousands of hits per week and has featured on the Guardian’s ‘Favourite Things’.  We were delighted to hear that Wealdstone v Rotherham won a vote as the tie for them to feature in the 1st round and as the people behind this site are ‘real fans’ they have even bought tickets for Sunday rather than request any complimentaries. We expect previews of the game including an interview with one of our players to go up on Friday.

We are also trying to arrange for BBC London to film at training on Thursday night so keep an eye out on the Friday and Saturday local tv news.  ITV sport will also be very much in evidence as one of at least 3 camera crews on Sunday.

Masses of work going on – please keep an eye on the website and forum re ticket news and any other important news like car parking.

Let’s all enjoy the next few days, we’ve waited long enough.

 

New Reserve Team secretary

I want to welcome Alison Moran as our new Reserve Team Secretary, and at the same time thank Lesley Jones for all her work over the past 18 months.

The Secretary’s job at a Club is a largely thankless task involving considerable arranging, organisation and administration.  Fingers does a priceless job for the Club but few people really see how much is involved.

Given all the (understandable) focus on how the first team does, we see great value in a strong, professional and well organised Reserve team and I am sure Alison has a lot of value to add here.  Alison is hardly new to the Club.  She has run the Wealdstone arm of our juniors for many years and displayed great tenacity and drive in making that part of the Club what it is today.  Welcome aboard Alison.

The press begin to take an interest

There is nothing like the FA Cup to wake the national press up to a football club.  Aylesbury certainly enjoyed their moment of fame before the last round and now we are getting a hint of what can happen when you enjoy Cup success.

Fortunately, and with Nick Dugard’s lead, we are generally able to deal with press enquiries as they come in, whether through Nick, Gordon or myself. We try and be proactive wherever possible and I think Nick’s excellent efforts mean we often get more than our fair share of press, though it is fair to say that most weeks are not like this – and who knows what will happen if we progress further in the Cup.  A nice problem to have.

Today’s Non League Paper has a nice feature on our shy and retiring vice captain Lee Chappell and earlier today I was interviewed by Non League 24 for a feature they will be doing on the Club in their forthcoming new magazine – we will be in either issue 1 or issue 2 a month later.  Tomorrow night I am doing the Non League show on Radio London (from 9-10) and then on Tuesday we believe the Times may be coming down to Ruislip – presumably now for the Trophy replay.  Perhaps we might even expect a decent preview in the local press too.

Next weekend we already know of two camera crews including one from ITV and that Radio London and Radio Sheffield will be providing commentary.  Then there are the requests from photographers and others to be at the game.

With a week still to go I would imagine there will be plenty more calls and enquiries.  Watch this space.

 

When 5 becomes 8

OK let’s get this bit over – we should have been out of sight on first half chances alone yet credit Harrow for their second half performance, and especially Rocky Baptiste who clearly has ’still got it’, however whether we were not clinical enough we had the game won at 90 minutes and crucially we had the game won on 95 minutes – we just didn’t have it won on 98.

I don’t normally come on here and have a go at referees, but perhaps the crucial incident in yesterdays game was when the original ref Mr Mackay had to go off with an injury at half time.  His replacement, Mr Kitchen, etched his name in Wealdstone – Harrow Borough folklore for all the wrong reasons – at least from a Wealdstone perspective.

Let’s get this straight, 5 minutes of injury time was signalled and announced (and even this I thought a little harsh to be honest).  When Rocky ballooned a free kick over the bar as the clock ticked past 95 minutes I expected the whistle to blow as Sean took the goal kick. But on he played and on.  When the final whistle went we had played over 8 minutes of stoppage time.  My recollection of the additional 5 minutes was that there was no real stoppages, no substitutions, bookings or anything.  So why signal 5 minutes and play 8.  Certainly it was not a game that deserved 8 minutes injury time.

To my mind the referee has materially affected this game, and could have cost us £3,000.  I have no complaints about how he handled the rest of the second half but getting timekeeping right should be the easiest thing.  I’d love to know what he was thinking after the 95th minute – was his watch running?

However cheated we feel there is nothing we can do about it.  We must look ahead and deal with the game on Tuesday (and hopefully win)  before focusing on Sunday. Hopefully there will be another ‘big’ Grosvenor Vale crowd and one that is noisy and gets behind the home team.

Let’s hope the ref remembers to look at his watch this time (unless we are one goal behind).

A great draw – exciting times

It was asking a lot to get one of the ‘big 4′ (Leeds, Southampton, Norwich or Charlton) but a home tie against a decent League 2 side fits the bill. You can see the draw here.

Rotherham United at home – we’ve been waiting long enough to get a fixture like this. I was listening to the draw down the phone to Jeremy Albert who was at Ruislip and I could hear the cries every time a team numbered in the 70s was pulled out.

Now all the hard work and planning starts, but I’m leaving that in the capable hands of Fingers and Peter.  Fortunately for me I’m away in Belgium until Tuesday with my wife (no kids) though she hasn’t been best pleased with the phone going off all afternoon, including Radio London.  I passed that onto Gordon so hopefully some people heard him about 10 to 3 this afternoon.  I think we will get plenty more coverage yet.

So stand by for announcements on the date and time of the game  – plenty to take into account and it will involve the police, licensing authorities and the FA as well as Rotherham – and also ticketing and all other salient details.

It’s a good time to be a Wealdstone fan I think.

Relief…and maybe a little celebration

I wasn’t sure what I was watching at just after 10 past 3.  I wasn’t the only one.

But before looking forward let’s first pay tribute to the boys for a marvelous comeback and an excellent 4-2 win.  But also we should say well done to Aylesbury, I hope they enjoyed their day as they have been a credit to their club and to the Spartan League.  Spare a thought for Greg – one moment, reacting to being wound up by Mark Boyce has cost him an appearance in the First Round of the FA Cup.  We know what Greg is like, even the song says what a nice man he is and he will be missed.

Anyway, onto the future.  23 years of pain – many of our younger followers will have read of the saga that was the 3 trips to Swansea for the replay.  For Gordon, it will be the monkey off his back.  For all he has achieved his FA Cup record has been lamentable so this can now be put to bed.

For all us now, all eyes will be the draw (live at 1.00pm on ITV).  For once we can look forward and have those discussions over who we would like, a glamour tie against the likes of Leeds, Southampton, Norwich or Charlton or Sutton United away?

For me any Football League side would be great.  I’m not greedy – though if it could be the ‘live’ televised fixture that would be good too. That said it is out of out hands and we will take whoever we get and do our best.  Can we start dreaming of what 2 more wins will mean?

It is a night to dream and why not.  Being involved with a Club like Wealdstone means we have had our share of hard times and disappointments but over the years we have also had plenty of great days.  We avoided a disappointment today and let’s hope another great day awaits in 2 weeks time.

News re Dennis Byatt

This evening Andrew Lane and I met with Dennis Byatt to conclude the process of his redundancy from the role of Commercial Manager.

This is without doubt the hardest thing I’ve had to do at the Football Club.  I certainly didn’t get into this role to make people redundant.  It has happened to me before and I can appreciate the likely impact on Dennis and his family.

However, when in this role you have to be prepared to take the right decisions for the Football Club.  The simple fact is we do not believe the targets we set for income will come close to being achieved this season, and given this we cannot justify the cost of employing someone to carry out these duties.

This is not about Dennis, he is a good guy, a popular guy and someone you would like to have around the place.  It is about the position and the fact that for many reasons, selling a non league football team is very hard work at present, particularly in this economy where many of the companies you might hope will support you financially are themselves laying off people and cutting costs.

We have always been clear with Dennis that the only way we could afford to employ someone was if we believed we were going to see considerably more incremental income coming in as a result of having someone in that position.  This means not just more income than his basic salary, but also more than the amount we could expect to raise ourselves.  So it was always a tough ask.

Perversely of course income remains our priority.  But we need to find a more cost efficient and a different way of organising ourselves.  This we are doing now and will announce soon.

Dennis will always be welcome at Wealdstone Football Club, and I hope that when the pain subsides he will not be a stranger.  He leaves us with his dignity in tact, with his popularity high and with our best wishes for the future and I genuinely thank him for all he has done for the Club over the last 18 months or so.

I hope people reading this post understand that sometimes tough and difficult decisions have to be taken for the good of the Club.  I will be happy to explain our plans further at the Supporters Club AGM on 9 November.

In the meantime let’s get the focus back on Saturday.

Frustration

This flu thing becomes very frustrating when you start having to miss the important things in life. It’s all very well to stay at home when you are ill but these days laptops & broadband mean you still keep on working.

But when it comes to Saturday and the big game try telling your missus that you are still not great as you pop the pills, keep her awake through your continual coughing & then say you are still going to football.

So it’s an afternoon of Jeff Stelling & staring at the phone waiting for text messages today. Deeply frustrating.

Please give generously to the collection we are doing on behalf of Steve Hughes today and pay your respects to Ken Wiggins whose family are also due at the game and hopefully cheer the boys onto another important victory.

Feel the buzz

You can almost touch the excitement in the air at the moment.  It makes a change.  The crowds are up, the bar is full of people, the message board gets busier and busier.

We are so close to some big days.  BUT and it is a but, let’s not count any chickens just yet.

First of all the FA Cup, yes we have a great chance of getting to the First Round, for the first time in over 20 years, but before that we have a tough fixture next week at Aylesbury.  They will fancy it too, they are on a great run and will be well up for the game – so it will be tough and probably our toughest test yet.

Noone wants to tempt fate, least of all me so all talk of the First Round needs to be guarded around me – except there is masses to plan should we get through and should we get a home draw.  Fortunately we have some people looking now at the regulations.

But before Aylesbury we have two more important fixtures.  For some time I have been looking at just the next two games.  The FA Trophy also offers some important prize money and a chance of glory later on in the season.  We will be keen to progress on Saturday and keep the run going but it will be a tough game.  Then we play at Hornchurch in the league.  This could be our only league game in about 6 weeks if we keep winning in FA competitions.  So we will go there with a desire to win, although I think we have lost 1-0 in evening games in both of the last two seasons so let’s hope we can turn that around.