Skipper's Season Summary

Saturday's fixture at home to Dartford brings to a close the 2011/12 season and Jake Ash gives us his thoughts.

What a long season it’s been. I think all the players and management will be glad of the break after what has been a difficult season all told. There have been many highlights though for the team. Here are some of them from my point of view:

- The magnificent start to the season where we picked up consecutive wins against three sides who have flirted with the playoffs all season. The team were still buoyant after the promotion and it carried over to give us a start which, looking back now, was hugely important.

- The win away at Dartford was a great performance, especially having been harshly reduced to ten men for half an hour against a team who only lost twice at home all season (and not at all at that point!).

- The 8-2 against Farnborough the week after was incredible – the boys were exceptional, and Stewart Yetton put in one of the best individual performances I’ve seen at Treyew Road that night.

- Beating Weston Super Mare on Boxing Day was particularly sweet. It is always nice to win on Boxing Day and we had to dig really deep.

- Seeing Cody Cooke develop this season has been great. He is a good kid and I had the pleasure of coaching him for a year at Penryn College so seeing a Cornish lad break into the team is really promising for the future of the club.

On a personal note, it has been a proud season for me. I have always been chuffed to be captain of the club, but I feel really honoured to have captained this team, this year – they are a cracking bunch of lads who are honest to the core and have overcome some difficult times this season. Coming back from injury in the win against Tonbridge was a great day for me – it is always horrible to miss games. And I think we all felt really good after the win against Boreham Wood after a string of really bad results had put us to close to the bottom three.

I know all the boys would like to thank the supporters for their incredible, and unwavering, support through the year. I think it says a lot for closeness of the team and its support that the tragic loss of Gillian Alderman had such an effect on the whole team. Needless to say, despite all the lows on a footballing sense, Gillian’s loss put everything into perspective.

We want to thank all the fans for their efforts this year, especially the travelling hoards who have continued to cheer the team on this year whatever the score. We have, as other clubs fans have also told me, undoubtedly got the best group of supporters in the league. Perhaps not in number, but definitely in every other sense.

Finally, whatever happens over the Summer with the players, the Football Club will be competing in the Conference South again next season. But the achievements of the team this year, contextually, have been herculean. As has the support.

Thank you from all the boys. Really.