From Co-Chairman Alex Petheram:
Firstly, thank you all for your support this season, with four games left I thought now would be as good a time as any to give you a quick update from inside the club and from my own viewpoint.
We’re delighted to have secured the sponsorship from ‘The Tyre Group’, with Malvern Tyres and County Tyres going on to our home and away shirts, Tiger Turf as stadium sponsors and Kappa as kit supplier and sponsors. Thank you all. We’ve other key partners to announce with new stand sponsors on the horizon, so watch this space and well done Jay.
We also have the new Supporters Club now formally starting, with Ian De Maria as Chair, Matt Phillips as Vice-Chair and Dave Herridge, Chris Palmer, Dave Jones, Gordon Bendall, Kate Ambrey, Matt Bowman, Claire Lane and Trevor King making up the rest of the board. This hopefully represents all areas from within the club as a whole.
During the Chorley game in person, and via email to members@gcafc.co.uk, up to midnight on the 01st May 2022, we’re asking supporters to vote for their Player of the Season in the following categories:
• Men’s Senior Player of the Season , which can include loan players.
• Men’s Senior Young Player of the Season. ‘Young Player’ is defined as aged 23 or younger as of the 07th May 2022 and can include loan players (see list of eligible players below)*
• Women’s Senior Player of the Season.
• YDP (Youth Development Programme) Player of the Season – so from the current U21’s, U18’s and Scholarship programme teams.
On Friday 06th May 2022 we’ve a Supporters Club Race Night at the club bar, please book via Dave Jones in the club shop, tickets are £2.00 each and include food, which will be something and chips. I hope you’re all enjoying the food offering we’re providing now, if anyone has any comments on food please do let myself or Michael know, clearly we can’t do everything at once and we’ve made some pretty big investments with extract hoods in the huts and the introduction of the Pie and Can, but we are trying hard and the feedback has been great to date, so thank you for your support.
Shortly you will be able to join the Supporters Club on the main club website ( www.gloucestercityafc.com ), this will gift you the balance of this season and all of next season. You’ll get first refusal on all away tickets, cup tickets (for when we draw Liverpool away in the third round of the FA Cup), we’ll do monthly draws to win free away tickets for league games, you’ll be invited to the kit launches, private training sessions, 10% off in the bar and shop, meet and greets with me, Manse and players, I’ll even be giving my box away every now and then with a beer on me as a thank you. We’re also looking at a discount scheme for away travel, plus more, so again, watch this space.
Now, I also accept that the bar isn’t currently working, so we’ve changed the beers on offer, introducing Wild Beer in cans, adding an additional 3 San Miguel lines, another Guinness line, adding Wainwrights for Ship yard, swapping out Magners cider for Kingston Press and we’re also adding Thatchers Haze this week, along with a third till as like I said a minute ago, I fully accept the bar isn’t working, hence all the changes. But opening the club bar in the middle of all the Covid rules from both the government and league wasn’t easy as we had a lot rules to follow from numbers or red and amber zones, to sitting down drinking only, hence we even had the ‘you must have a meal / scotch egg’ rule for a bit, so I fully accept you as supporters have been messed around not knowing if it’s open, closed or whatever. But to be clear, feel free to come in for a beer. We’ll be making more changes to the bar over the summer and hopefully, if I get my way, I’ll be adding the running of this to Michael’s duties, so he’ll be doing the food and drink - but don’t tell him, it’s a secret!
Thank you all for helping us on the kit design this season, on the home kit, option 2 won the vote and we’ll be playing in the white and green option away from home. The kits will be on sale mid-July 2022 and yes, the club shop will be getting some big-time love over the summer, as like the bar, I see what you see!
Season tickets will be going on sale on the 07th May 2022 - yep that’s the last game of the season at home vs Blyth. Sadly, with costs ever rising, we will be increasing standing prices by £1 a game, sorry! Seating tickets and season tickets will also increase, but please don’t forget, next season you’ll get an extra two home games as the league is expanding in numbers. Plus, season ticket holders will get 10% discount in the bar and club shop, plus free access to all YDP and Women’s home games. And don’t forget our U19s will also be in the National League system now. And yes, we’ll be doing the 1883 membership too, which will be a 6-game season ticket and half season tickets i.e. up to Christmas and even Christmas to the end of the season. Season tickets don’t include pre-season games, Cup games or Play-off games.
The U18s are still in the trophy hunt this season, they have reached the County Cup Final, please come and support the lads, tickets will go on sale soon. And well done lads, you’ve had a great season, you’ve excelled in the league cup, losing the final to Kidderminster and it looks like they’ll finish second in the league too, yep, Kidderminster, so well done to my fellow chairman and friend Richard Lane at Kiddy, they really have had a great season! We also have a couple of other youth teams in the hunt for silverware this season, so good luck to you all!
I’m sitting down with Manse later in the week to discuss next season and what that looks like so we’ve a busy couple of weeks ahead. So to conclude, what can I say, it’s been an emotional season, I’m pleased personally it’s nearly over, we all need a rest. Thanks again for sticking with us.
Ever Forward
AP
*Eligible Players 23 and Under:
Liam Armstrong
Alex Avenell
Dylan Barkers
Ryan Galvin
Louis Hall
Tom Harrison
Jack Hill
Ollie Hulbert
Jack James
Joe Jeremiah
Danny King
Pablo Martinez
Max Sheaf
Jordon Thompson
Lucas Tomlinson
Harvey Wiles-Richards