Ruislip crisis meeting

We’ll hear more about what happened at Ruislip at their crisis meeting this evening over the coming days.

The Non League Show on BBC Radio London carries an interview with Manor fan Victor Klarfeld and things don’t look too promising.  Click on the Listen Again option and fast forward to around 34 minutes.

It doesn’t look too good. It seems that only one person came forward to take on a position and the President John Barnett has given those interested in helping a further 12 hours to come forward.  Let’s hope they do.

A typical day at the office

Not so frenetic today.  But here are some of the various issues that have come up.

Our Japanese friends are keen to bring over an 18 year old for next season.  He is actually a J League Youth player at Gamba Osaka so we have been looking through dates to see if we can make it work so the player will have the football experience he wants while he is over here.

Still quite a lot going on regarding youth football.  We have had discussions with further youth clubs who might be interested in linking up with us, and others are also making themselves known.  Mark Lloyd is looking into the possibility of running a Youth tournament at Ruislip which could be a big fund raiser and his work has opened up a number of opportunities to talk to various youth clubs.  I am delighted Mark is getting involved with this, it is another example of someone taking responsibility for something really important and potentially very beneficial for us.

Press wise I have done an interview with Tony Incenzo for the Ryman League Clubcall line – should be on tomorrow – and spoken to Dave Watters from Non League Today and the Non League Show.

Was also speaking to Gordon earlier.  He went to see Dean Papali get 70 minutes for Burnham who lost at Windsor in the County Cup last night. Incidentally take a look at the Windsor & Eton pen pictures, you might recognise a certain Mr Bartlett (junior) who made his debut for Windsor earlier in the season.  Glad to see they got your better side Craig.

I have been encouraged recently by the good conversations that Gordon has been having with Adie Boothroyd at Watford.  We are hoping to fix up an arrangement such as the one we had with Theo and John Joe last season – but as yet nothing has been finalised, no one has been sent over (Alex Campana aside) so don’t take any notice of any rumours to the contrary.

So a quiet day and I liked Roger’s idea of  getting a team of supporters together with some past WFC stars is a great one.  I thought the one of the first WFC games at Ruislip should be a staff v supporters game and maybe we will do that too – but count me in for the Field of Dreams idea (those on the WFC mailing list will know what I mean).

other

Getting Don on board

Good news about Don Cross taking on a project management role at Ruislip.

Don has the right mix of skills and experience to understand what needs to be done as priority, how it can be done and who should do it.  I look forward to working with him.

As I posted last night, remember this is just week 2.  I think you will see much more organisation quickly apparent – this was always going to be the case – and some of the other conversations I’ve had (and I know Peter has had) over the past 24 hours encourage me that we have some really committed people prepared to help.

A special thank you also to Andrew Lane who has been generous in offering the club help in a number of ways today.  Every day we continue to be pleasantly surprised by what people’s generosity.  Let’s hope it keeps happening.

Exciting times with the Juniors

We met tonight with the 5 guys who run the Ruislip Manor Youth Club.

Not surprisingly they are keen to know what our involvement at Grosvenor Vale means for them but they impressed us with how they have built their Club up in recent times.  I am excited about how we can work together going forward and I hope to make some more announcements about this in the near future.

Where do you start?

A really impressive turn out at Ruislip today.  I reckon about 40 people there.  Thanks to you all.
The realisation quickly hits everyone of the size of the task.  So much to do and where do you start?

We did say before Sunday that today was about coming down and getting a feel of the place and doing some general clearing, gardening jobs etc.  We are now beginning to get a much clearer picture of where priority focus needs to be and crucially who will take on the roles of leading the various aspects of the project.  I expect that this is largely in place very shortly.

As people begin to think about the possibilities at Ruislip there are more and more ideas of the potential of the place.  For example Mark Lloyd is looking into what is needed for running a big junior tournament over a weekend there.   As always these ideas are welcome but what will make them come to fruition is commitment, responsibility and coordination.  If you think it can be done then it probably can as long as you can do it or find people to do it with you – and tell us what you want to do.  We will support most things!

Finally on the Ruislip Manor FC front they have a meeting in a week’s time to see whether their club will survive.  We wish them well.

I have noticed some of the comments that the departed chairman made in last week’s Non League Today have appeared on various forums and 1-2 of our people have reacted to these comments.  I am comfortable that the criticisms of Wealdstone have only come from Mr Barrett and his family and are not the views of those trying to save RMFC.  Wealdstone people reading these comments should simply ask themselves where the Barrett’s are now and why they are not involved in trying to help save the Club they were happy to run as long as someone else picked up the bill.

Excellent Harrow Observer coverage today

Have you seen the Harrow Observer today? If not it’s well worth getting hold of a copy.

The front page has a signpost to the new “Support Our Stones” campaign and there is a full page feature on p5 and then almost the full back page under the headline “Stones are to the Manor born”, as well as more photos on the inside back page. Click here for the link to the article on the Harrow Observer website.

This is the start of a joint campaign that we will be running with the Harrow Observer to build interest and hopefully attract fans, old and new, to the Club.

We’ve had a great reaction to the Ruislip news however it is only a start and we need to keep the momentum going for many months. I am delighted with the Harrow Observer support – it is important to remember that even though we are moving to Ruislip our spiritual home remains in Harrow.

Building up the Junior Club

This evening Fingers, Gordon and I met with Alison and John Moran and James Smith from Wealdstone Juniors to begin the exciting if slightly daunting task of shaping Wealdstone Juniors for the future.

This is the first step, we have many conversations to have, with many people and many big decisions to take.

For me this is one of the most exciting possibilities that Ruislip gives us.  Next step is to talk to Ruislip Manor Youth on Monday.
Stay tuned, plenty more on this in the coming weeks.

Bad boys?

Gordon and I attended a meeting at the FA today.

Our disciplinary record at the end of October was the worst in the league and the FA wanted to have the chance to have a good natured chat so that we could try and ensure our record would improve during the second half of the season.

We met for half an hour with three FA officials and had a very fair conversation.  They wanted to see what we had done previously about discipline and what we were going to do before the end of the season to avoid the possibility of a fine or other censure.

One thing is for sure, going forward we need to cut out all those silly bookings be it for dissent, delaying the start of play or whatever.  The players, and management know what is expected of them.

Congratulations Havant

We sort of know how you feel.

What was it 3 or 4 years ago we won through to play the might of Liverpool in the 3rd Round of the Cup at Anfield.  Ok it was the FA Youth Cup, not the 4th Round of the FA Cup.  But if our Anfield experience was magical have no doubt everyone connected with Havant & Waterlooville will be in dreamland tonight.

What a night it must have been tonight.  Beating Swansea – League 1 leaders don’t forget – was pretty special, but beating them and knowing a trip to Anfield awaits is something else.  Jealous? You bet – and of course delighted for Rocky Baptiste, who scored again tonight; and as well for Theo Robinson who also made it through to the 4th Round tonight as  Hereford caused their own shock beating Tranmere.

Of course the headlines are guaranteed to Kevin Keegan but I doubt anyone in Havant really cares about that tonight.

A mad night

Just back from Erith

A mad game!

3 up and cruising, 4-2 at half time, 4-4 three minutes into the second half and both teams could have scored more before Peter Dean got his hat trick in the last minute.  Even in injury time both teams could have scored again.

Not a good day to be a defender but I think we have a home game against Fisher next in the quarter final.  Perhaps we should play that at Ruislip?

So a 9 goal thriller, but Peter Worby and I both realised how little of the game we managed to see as we compared notes on everything going on.  More meetings tomorrow evening and maybe more news as well.