Chairman's Blog - End Of Season 11/12

I think it is right to start my review and talk about last week’s game at Woking, where over 4,000 people attended the match.  It was an amazing day which I attended with my father and my son.  To be totally honest, I had a real lump in my throat when I consider 7 seasons ago we would have been playing in front of less that 100 people for an away fixture, but here we are playing one of the biggest non-league football clubs in the country.  Haven’t we come a long way in just 7 seasons?  A 3-3 draw against the Champions shows just how far we have come.

The 2011/12 season has been a very challenging one both on and off the park for a variety of reasons.  Everyone knows about the difficult times financially that the country is having and that has had an affect on everyone and every business.  Financially supporting a football club during these times has been extremely hard for both owners and sponsors.  But we are here at the end of the season, which has been our most difficult to date and are looking forward to moving forward once again.  We are very proud to be members of the Conference League and a great deal has been learnt about the travelling, the clubs and the type of players required at this level, which is clearly a huge step up from Southern Premier.

As your proud chairman for the last 7 seasons everyone knows that I try to do my very best for this football club.  As always, we must look to the bigger picture and this is maintaining our level of performance and league status as well as developing the youth and ladies teams whilst working with the community to deliver facilities for training and a stadium for Cornwall, whilst keeping the club sustainable.  I am sure that all supporters will agree, it is better that we stay at this level and be financially secure and achieve much needed facilities, work on our commercial profile and increase the public awareness of this club before we make the next step up in the football pyramid.  At the same time, we must remain ambitious but keeping to a strict budget within our means.

I would like to congratulate Steve Oliver and the Ladies team for achieving the Treble this season and getting themselves promoted into the South West Women’s League.  It’s good to see success in other areas of the Truro City structure.

I have a whole host of people that I would like to thank for their hard work and dedication this season.  Firstly I would like to thank Chris, Mark, Lee, Dave, Deba, Ian, Haydn and of course the players for their extremely hard work during this testing season, they deserve to be in this league and hopefully the progression will come next season and we can establish ourselves as a Conference level club.

I would also like to thank everyone who helped with getting the ground grading criteria met for this league.  It was not easy but without everyone helping out, we would not be in the league we currently find ourselves in.  A particular thanks must go to the supporters who helped out and to Keyline for supplying the materials.

I would like to thank Gary Pascoe, his staff and all the players for their efforts this season.  It has been great to see some players from the reserves step up into the first team, such as Cody Cooke, Daniel Carne and Scott Palmer.  They certainly held their own in the Conference South League.  It is good to know that we have the quality required should we need to call upon them.  Well done Gary, keep up the great work.

I also need to thank our main sponsors Truro College and Cornish Land for their support this season.

Now, most importantly onto you the supporters of Truro City FC.  You have followed us home and away and I would like to pay special thanks to everyone who has supported us this season.  It’s great to know that when we travel away we have supporters there who will cheer the players on.  It really does make a huge difference to them and I hope that this continues into next season.  It is much appreciated by all at TCFC, especially by me and the board of Truro City.  On a sad note, the loss of Gillian Alderman, who I often spoke to, has put life into perspective for us all and I am sure that she will be looking down on all of our games in the future.  RIP Gillian.

Rest assured, with all that has happened on and off the park for the club this season; I have learnt a lot about what is required for the future prosperity of Truro City FC.  The club has very clear plans for the future and we, as a club, will do everything in our power to achieve continued success and climb as high as we can in the football pyramid, whilst also being sustainable.  As ever, we will do all we can to keep prices as low as possible for you the supporters.  Don’t forget to tell all of your friends and family about the Truro City experience and try to get them along to witness a match day.

So we close our season today against Dartford.  I would like to wish them all the best in the up and coming playoffs.  They are a model football club for everyone at our level with their fantastic set-up and eco-friendly stadium, which I am sure they are very proud of.

Be sure to log onto trurocityfc.co.uk during the off season to check for pre-season friendly fixtures for the upcoming 12/13 season.  I hope to see you all there.

I would lastly like to wish everyone a peaceful and happy break over the summer, no doubt we will all be cheering on the teams at the European Championships and the Olympic games, let’s hope for some success.

After all, Never Say Never.

Best Wishes

Chairman, Kevin Heaney