Firstly, hopefully everyone is coping with the lockdown, and we all hope that everyone associated with the club and their friends and family are well during these difficult times.

With our league position currently very strong, we have been looking at what direction to take the football club should the season finish. Promotion is not out of the question and would require an application to the GNSL (Gloucester Northern Senior League), albeit there is no guaranteed automatic promotion and likely only one spot between the two Division 1s, and with the season still hanging in the balance, it may be the case no side is promoted like last season.

There are also a range of other options and we have to make the right choice for the future of the Football Club and also the players when considering leagues higher up the footballing ladder we wish to compete in, and where that would take us in the future. There is due to be a restructure of the non league at steps 2-6 this summer, and decisions on those leagues with their seasons and covid will ultimately have an impact on the options available to us.

Being able to enter a league higher up in terms of level will be great for the club and already a lot of work has taken place to help us be able to achieve this. It would also enable us to attract additional players (should we need to) but also provide a great platform to help the existing players develop further and make sure we can retain our best talent as well as attracting more fans and eventual followers to the football club, offer the area a better standard of football to watch and not only this, it matches the ambition Dev and myself have set out from the start.

Although I am new to the party, a big pull in joining New Dales Vales FC this season was the ambition of Dev. Dev has worked considerably hard over the past few seasons to get the club to where it is today, and hopefully we can now push on together.

We often talk of the success of other local clubs around us such as Worcester Raiders, Worcester City, Pershore Town, Malvern Town, Droitwich Spa and Stourport Swifts, and we see how well these clubs are doing on and off the pitch. This is where we want to be competing. We want New Dales Vale FC to be talked about in the same conversations as these football clubs. Whilst there is plenty of work to be done, I feel we can see a path forward to grow the club, the fanbase and ultimately push on to try and achieve this.

With the latest lockdown in place, we have also been looking at ways to improve the ground facilities at Archdales Sports & Social club. Unfortunately we have a stubborn area of the pitch which after a small amount of rain floods fairly easily. We have been looking at ways to improve this, and have hopefully found a solution with some new underground drainage. This however comes at a price and we have been looking at ways to raise the funds in order to carry out the work. With the support of the players, and also family and of course the fans we are on course of hitting our target set out to fund this work.

For this I thank each and every one of you!!

Myself and Dev have also been working closely with a new kit supplier to offer us some top of the range quality kit. Whether this be for match days, training, or just casual wear. We have something for everyone, and more details on this will be shared soon.

We're looking to bring some more people on board for next season, with a couple of roles already advertised, but there may also be a couple more to add to that. We've also been looking at some other avenues which we think will improve the club on & off the field with again hopefully more to come on that soon.

We don't currently know when/if this season will start back up, but there is a league meeting on Wednesday (27/1), and hopefully that might set out the various options available, depending on when/if the lockdown restrictions are eased. The league set out early on a backup plan of each team playing each other once to achieve a league table should the season be cut short, and with many clubs close to achieving this, hopefully this is still a possibility if there is only a limited amount of football left in April/May.

Thanks for your continued support!
#UTD #UTV