Here we are at our fourth home game in as many weeks, we then go for four weeks without a home league game! We are, therefore, hoping for a victory in the FA Cup next week at Highworth Town and to secure a home draw in the next round.

It was good to see so many supporters turn out for the recent open forum with the Directors. The range of topics discussed was very extensive. Of course there were the key questions about the way the Board saw the Club developing, as well as issues being raised around topics such as the speed of service on match days and the items available in the shop.

In addressing the big issues the Board are clear that the short-tem priority is to tackle the shortfall between the costs of running the Club and the income currently generated. SCFC has a strong support base and it is a key part of the strategy to attract more people to games, equally important is enabling supporters to have access to good catering and refreshments, and ensuring that the shop and other match day facilities are improved.

To attract more people to games the Club will adopt a range of initiatives, including building on our links with local schools. Today we have joined other non-league clubs by offering discounts to season ticket holders of league sides. We hope that those of you attending for the first time will enjoy your day and return in the near future.

Income generation is vital for all football clubs. We have an excellent opportunity to expand our activities to provide the Sarum Suite and other hospitality areas as venues for events and conferences. We are therefore extremely pleased to be welcoming Feargal Powell to lead this area of our business. Feargal joins us next week and his experience in successfully organising events will be an asset to the Club. Plans are in place to revamp the facilities on offer.

Following the Open Forum a number of supporters offered volunteer assistance to the Club, we are extremely grateful to those individuals and we will shortly release on the website details of areas where assistance would be most welcome. In the short-term your help in promoting the Club within the local community is key.

Our travelling support continues to be very impressive, wherever we go our hosts comment on the way our fans are boosting attendance. The Supporters Club are seeking to connect fans wanting to travel to away games so that they can reduce costs.

Our Commercial Team continue to engage with local businesses and individuals within the community. There are a number of potential sponsorship opportunities on offer at the Club, we are about to launch sponsorship for individual players and hope that this will attract support from fans as well as businesses.

As we have previously stated engaging with young people in the community is important to the club. Every member of our playing squad is “adopting” a SCFC junior side and also being linked to a local school. We will also shortly see the start of the half-time penalty shoot out competition which is being sponsored by Spire FM.

Today we extend a warm welcome to the Directors, Management, Players and Supporters of Cirencester Town. We look forward to the return fixture in January.

William Harrison-Allan, Chris Brammall, Jeff Hooper, Paul Fredericks