“The end of the season certainly doesn't mean the end of the workload at the football club. No sooner had we played our final game at Shrewsbury in the TJ Vickers Cup Final that we began planning for next season. The first event was to plan for our Annual General Meeting in which we discussed our performance over last season and projected our hopes for next. We waved goodbye to some Committee members and welcomed some new faces as well. I'd like to thank Bob Mellor, Cliff Taylor, and Nicky Millington for their hard work on the Committee. They have kindly volunteered to come and lend a hand during busy spells and we are very grateful for their offers. We welcome Liam Dunphy, and Jay Nash onto the Committee and we recently appointed Dan Pollard as the new Reserve Team Manager. The three of them bring a wealth of experience of local football to the club and preparations are well underway for the Reserves to kick off in the West Midlands Regional League Division 2 next season. Dan is hosting an open house at the club on the 5th June for players interested in joining the Reserves.

As I type I am busy planning the budget for next season. We expect it to be a challenging season financially especially since we lose Witton Albion, Rushden & Diamonds from the league; two of our busiest fixtures. Once the fixtures are announced and we know who we will face in the early rounds of the FA Cup, the budget forecasts for each fixture will be adjusted for Saturday and Tuesday home games and we can firm up things a bit for next season.

Ben and I recently attended the Chairman's meeting in Warrington which proved to be a very productive day. Several issues were addressed including the proposed reformatting of the Step 3 and 4 Leagues for the 2018-19 season which will have a direct effect on our club. Firstly, it was reassuring to learn that every other club represented in the room shared our view that the new proposals are a seriously bad idea. Not only does this create the scenario of a “super playoff” in Step 3 (effectively a playoff final of playoff finals), but, as a Midlands club, we may be collared in the future for a sideways league move. The Southern League is administering the new Step 4 league on exactly the same budget as they are currently running their incumbent leagues. This would mean our club would effectively subsidise the running of the additional teams in a different Step 4 league through no choice of our own. Even if this doesn't happen to us we deem it totally unacceptable to those clubs in our current league who are threatened by this proposal. League boundaries change seasonally and there's no reason why we wouldn't get drawn into this in the future so we need to consider the consequences for the club now. The National League had their way during the planning process and, in my opinion, the new proposals are poorly-thought out, based purely on financial considerations, and have resulted in previously unforeseen consequences that have been hastily addressed with an inelegant solution that is yet to be tested in the real world. To change people's minds who don't want their minds to be changed will be difficult but the NPL is behind us and we will continue to support our fellow member clubs in ensuring the best result for everyone in Step 4.

Our plan to further grow the club within the local community is progressing as well. We are busy talking to sponsors who continue to support us with great passion and I can't thank them enough. We are also hoping to forge new relationships with local businesses that we hope will evolve into long-standing agreements for sponsorship. We are delighted to answer requests from our sponsors who would like to use our facilities and we are working on a couple of projects which we hope will benefit the town as a whole.

The pitch held up really well last season largely due to a comparatively dry winter. The goal mouth at the Tennis Club end will be dug up and re-turfed and the pitch will get at least six weeks rest before we use it again. The first game on it in the pre-season will be against Stafford Rangers on Tuesday 25th July. We are regularly praised for the condition of our pitch and it's down to the tireless work of our groundstaff that our players have such a fantastic surface to play on.

Next season sees Saturday football at Greenfields most weeks. With a total of at least 35 Evo-Stik League, FA Cup, FA Trophy, and WMRL Cup games to host it'll be a busy season and should provide plenty of opportunities for you to come down and watch our sides on the back of two of the most successful seasons in Market Drayton's history. We are expecting the Reserves to be very popular in the WMRL so hopefully we will see more fans through the gates at Greenfields this season than ever before.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at one of our games.”