Hello and welcome to what is the first or what I hope will be many ‘Chairman’s Chat’ posts here on the Club’s website.

Succeeding Joe Cusack as Chairman leaves me some pretty big shoes to fill, but I am excited and very proud to have been elected as Chairman of Fairford and Lechlade Youth Football Club.

I know I speak for all involved with the Club when I say ‘thank-you’ to Joe for all his effort during his time as Chairman of the Club. The same also goes to Tony Warrington. Spike – as he is affectionately known – stands down from his role as Club Development officer and I personally thank him for getting me involved in the off-the-pitch side of things at the Club. Development Officer is such an involved role it could almost be a full-time job which Spike has already, so to take on this task alongside his own business is quite something.

We have a fantastic set of coaches and some wonderful players and most importantly huge potential. As a Club we are fortunate enough to have a great foundation with the existing set-up at Horcott Road, however I believe we can do more, and offer more to the kids in the local area and to the local community.

Over the next few weeks, the Club’s committee will be working to put together a plan for the next five years of the Club, a plan to improve our community engagement, our facilities at Horcott, our links with other Clubs and most importantly, get more children playing our national game. We will need help to achieve our goals, however, and welcome any interested parent to join our committee in a non-sporting capacity.

The 2017-2018 season has been a superb one for the Club, with our Under 12s reaching the North Wilts Youth League Cup final, and our Under 18s winning the same competition in a fantastic final played at Swindon Town’s County Ground. Right across the Club we are seeing success, from engagement with developing players at Kickstart, through to the aforementioned U18s who we hope will continue their football journey with our friends at Fairford Town Foootball Club.

Many of our age groups are now running multiple teams at the same age, something I think speaks volumes about the welcoming, friendly atmosphere our Club offers.

We’re very much looking forward to our presentation day on Saturday 23rd of June, and we are grateful to have the support of some wonderful local businesses for the day, firms such as Flint and Lambourn Marquees, SK Party Solutions and The Cotswold Chippy mean you won’t be lacking for entertainment. As well as that, we’ll have our traditional end of season presentations, live football from the FIFA World Cup, a sports memorabilia auction, raffle and much, much more.

I hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Adam Sloman
Chairman, Fairford and Lechlade Youth Football Club.