I do not understand what all the fuss is about. The Man from Mars would think that we are a club in crisis whereas we are still finding our feet in a new, higher-standard league, we are not too far from a play-off place with the season not yet half way even though we have suffered serious and lengthy injuries to key players such as Ben, Luke and Louis.
To be honest, how the club was run 10/20 years ago is of very little concern to me. What happens today and tomorrow, figuratively speaking, are my interests.
Over the last 6 seasons that I have been attending most home games, we have finished 16th, 9th, 8th, 6th and two play-off positions AND three successful cup runs AND with steadily-increasing gates. All of this to me is progress on the pitch. Well done to Gary and his management team but PLEASE Gary get our side to return to playing football ie the ball on the ground and cutting open defences with passes and NOT route one !
Off the pitch, there have been vast improvements to the playing surface, club house, floodlights, changing rooms etc etc. Yes these have been paid for by the cup runs and the c£47k grant and increased sponsorship but also a lot of behind-the-scenes work has also been resolved eg sorting out responsibility for underground tunnels, boundaries and subsidence issues etc. All of these take many, many hours of unpaid work and shows progress. Well done to AP and his management team who are running our club along professional lines and with commendable ambition. After all, they want SFC to do well just as much as us ordinary fans.
Concerning the so-called 'them and us' barrier, my personal experience is that, whenever I've needed points clarifying, most of the directors have been friendly and approachable.
Have been to a few 150 Club nights and find them a useful way of meeting officials and players.
I don't have any problems with SFC's up-to-date lines of communication and particularly like Gary's Q & A page in the programme. OK sometimes I find things out first in the Express and Star but the subjects soon appear on the club's website. However, there are a few areas where mistakes have been made, notably Paul McCone and the 'agreement' with Gary when Paul first returned. This was never credible.
Concerning the current finances and bearing in mind our early cup exits will result in only c£10k of prize money, I feel that the club will do well to breakeven this season unless pruning of costs takes place. However, the current bank balance should still be in a healthy position, even after the apparent 'give away' of Sean Geddes. Also it seems that the planned further ground improvements of £12.5k have been put on hold.
Therefore, funds should be available for investment in players.
Summarising, to me, SFC is not in a bad place. OK we all want us to be doing better but I'm hoping that after tonight's meeting, we the club, players, directors, coaching staff and us, the supporters, will be looking to the future with optimism AND AS ONE.