Tonight we welcome Southend United to the Mangata Developments Stadium Meadow Park, can I wish their Directors, Manager, Players, Staff and Supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
Well, it’s fair to say we are possibly surprising a lot of clubs within this league with our start and in truth we’re possibly surprising ourselves. I wrote in my last programme notes on some of the reasons why I think we have started so strongly and for me now is not the time to over-analyse things, now Is the time to go with it and enjoy this moment in time for all it’s worth.
I’ve been at the club for so many years, and in that we’ve time built many good platforms, many good environments and many successful teams, along with my staff and my managers and though it’s still very early days in this new rebuild, it is perhaps true that no matter what you build off the park your club is only judged by your dressing room, recruitment, performances and results.
If the above is true……….then I’m pleased to say we have almost completed three sides of our stadium and the home fan’s bar and facilities to a high standard. As such, we can now turn our attention to finally building the away stand and facilities at the South end (forgive the pun) of the Stadium.
If we can achieve that and still stay financially strong then I’ve done my job as we will have a stadium that’s fully EFL compliant, a budget to hopefully create another successful period for the football club and I feel with continued good recruitment we can build another competitive dressing room and create a very positive environment. If we do that, then I’m hopeful our future is bright.
When you are part of a small club like ours, you must understand who you are when you meet clubs as big as Southend United. It’s no good going into any game with an inferiority complex or worrying about any clubs’ budget, its squad size or in truth its history. It’s more important for a club like ours to go into the game with an excitement to perform in front of bigger than normal crowds and enjoy the enormous away following that clubs like Southend United bring.
This evening’s game is an exciting one because of the amazing away support Southend United enjoy. Their fans make every away match an occasion and in truth it’s why smaller clubs like us look forward so much to a Southend United visit and these are among the first games we look for when the fixtures are announced.
I’m also very good friends with John Still who heads up Southend’s recruitment team, and I speak with him most weeks. John is someone who I’ve often gone to for advice throughout my 27 seasons in the chair which in Stilly’s time means his stints at Dagenham and Redbridge twice, Luton Town, Barnet twice and presently during his time at Southend United.
Expectation levels of our two clubs are in truth polar opposites. Southend United are the club that failed by a whisker at Wembley in the play-off final last season, having seemingly had the game won or that’s how it seemed when I was watching it. As such, after that very successful season, expectation this season is understandably huge, which means you must handle that type of pressure accordingly.
We, of course, have our own pressures and have quiet ambition but our pressure is very different to Southend’s for very obvious reasons which doesn’t include keeping happy an 8,000 average home crowd or an average 1,000 travelling cohort, which is truly amazing support for this level.
On reflection the pressure on me, possibly felt off the scale 18 months ago, when we were relegated but it lifted hugely just six months ago when we won promotion back to the National League via the play offs at the first attempt. All of which has meant that our expectations this season are more about continuing our good recruitment, continuing the building ambitions off the park and continuing to give our Manager Luke Garrard, and Sporting Director Charlie Hunter the tools and best budget I can to be competitive.
So, this evening to be welcoming such a big club as Southend United once again is brilliant. It’s also true that nights like tonight felt a million miles away just 12 months ago when, with respect, we would have welcomed say a Chippenham or an Aveley to Meadow Park which after the previous decade was hard to accept. That is now once again in the past and tonight we are in truth welcoming the biggest club in the South of England who are not playing in the EFL.
I’m sure for Southend United supporters it’s not exactly an exciting prospect playing us in front of our1,000 home fans but for me and our town it tells us just how far we’ve come over the last decade and trust me we also know that Southend United supporters deserve league football – and but for your previous owner you would never have been down at this level and we know with your fanbase you deserve so much better.
For me though it’s more about worrying about us tonight and to sit third at present is testament to our bottom-up approach to club business, it’s testament to our small steps approach to building our stadium, and testament to our gradual budget increases over the last decade to move ourselves forward.
That type of patience is rare in football but is testament to you our loyal supporters, to my staff, to our gaffer, to our incredible work ethic, and is a thumbs up to your patience and our business model.
In truth the early indicators for our whole football club are looking pretty good on all fronts and they are far better than we could have possibly hoped for. So can I just say to everyone connected with the club including our partners, sponsors, supporters and dressing room, well done on our start, let’s not go overboard as it’s not how you start a season it’s how you finish, but let’s enjoy this moment as it’s well deserved.
To the Southend United fans can we simply say, you truly are an amazing group of supporters, whose loyalty, care and love for your club, always shine through and you’ve shown many times that without you your club would have gone bust many times.
In its many moments of need under Mr Ron Martin you rallied each other and you found a way to survive and continue your club’s proud history. Trust me all at Boreham Wood FC wish you all the very best of luck in your quest to get yourselves back to the EFL, as NO set of supporters would deserve it more.
Lastly, whoever you support this evening, let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
Proposed development: South Stand
