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Port v Dinbych / Denbigh - 20/03/99 My first task today is to apologise to our loyal supporters for the remarks attributed to me in the Daily Post and the local press where it appears that I have said our season is over and the quicker it ends the better. These remarks have been taken total-ly out of context and are the result of editors shortening my statements to suit the typespace available. One thing about our programme editor is that he never shortens my article or confines me to a limited amount of words. The point I was making to the press was that since the directors confirmed that our ground did not match League of Wales standards and we had sold Mike Foster to Aberystwyth and Paul Roberts had left for Bangor we made a decision to give fringe players and youngsters at the club an opportunity in the side to see if they could do a long term lob for the club. Normally a manager would be looking to strengthen his squad before the transfer deadline and at the same time increase his salary budget, what I have done is decrease the squad and reduce the wage bill. Unfortunately at the same time we have been hit with a lot of injuries, suspensions and unavailability’s. This is not an excuse for our poor run over the past few weeks but a fact. When I arrived at Porthmadog in March 1995 (yes 4 years ago) the club was in dire relegation trouble and deep in debt. I worked totally unpaid with Mickey Thomas and sign-ing players eventually staving off rele-gation on the last two matches of the season. During the close season I took over as manager when Mickey resigned because of what he consid-ered a poor budget. A few weeks into the season the budget was cut in half and all the players played the rest of the season on half wages. During this period I was instrumental along with other hard working board mem-bers in floating a new company and raising £10,000 in share capital and bringing in new directors such as Clive Hague who has since raised thousands of pounds for the club. The following season I built a team on a shoestring that played Caernarfon Town at y Traeth with a 900 gate, we drew 0-0 and went sec-ond in the league at the halfway stage of the season. In with a shout of Europe I sold Paul Roberts to Wrexham for £10,000 to pay off the clubs debts. The following season I sold Chris Waring to Bangor and this season sold Mike roster to Aber, During my four years I have encour-aged architects to draw up plans for a modern stadium without any charge, I have also attended meetings to effect grant aid in relation to this pro-ject I also encouraged the setting up of the Supporters Club who have made generous donations to Porthmadog FC. During this time the club has also managed to rent the British Legion Hail and have set up a Football in the Community Scheme which has now expanded to Bangor and Rhyl employing three full-time coaches in Paul Osahan, Chris Lawler and Robbie Anderson. The full fruits of this project will be seen in the not too distant future. These are just a few examples of the work undertaken by a manager, not to mention meetings on a regular basis. I am not alone in the workload I carry out, the club has a small but dedicated band of workers and sup-porters have little idea of the work these people do to keep the club moving forward. Since my time at Port the club has addressed one big problem, our best players leaving for nothing, we now sell them, if we are to get the success we all crave we must start hanging on to them and improving our squad and at the same time develop our stadium. Not an easy task but one we are all address-ing together so if there are any of you out there who would like to help, come forward and make yourselves known. Enjoy the Match. |
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