Sadly, their prize money does not match Buildbase so as a result, it is unknown as to what side Steve Burr will put out. Does he keep faith in the team who despite a man disadvantage put up a spirited performance to beat Rushall. Or does he give youth a chance and give fringe players a run out. As we all know, such action backfired last week at Lye Town in the Walsall Senior Cup. What it means, is that we hope fans will travel to boost our following and support the team. Remember too, there is a very good chance to see several former Rangers players in the Chasetown line up.

In the summer, many fans picked Scott Dundas to be our next manager. Like Steve, Scott was a well-respected former player who took Chasetown to the division 1 play offs last season. Had they won they would have been at level 3 like ourselves and may even had been league rivals. Yet in a few months Chasetown find themselves in a relegation battle as they lie just outside the relegation places on goal difference and 1 point away from bottom spot. With only one league win all season, and non at home, I am sure Chasetown will be out to put one over their near neighbours and progress into the next round and follow up on their pre season victory over us.

Games played this century on 30th October
2004 Gateshead            H  2-1  FA Cup 4th Qualifying round
2007 Cambridge Utd    A  1-5  FA Cup 4th Qualifying round
2010 Solihull                  A  1-1  Conference North
2012 Chorley                 H  1-0  Northern Premier League

This board of directors agreed many months ago that there will be no more director’s loan accounts. That doesn’t mean that the directors won’t put money into the club, but it does mean that their contributions will be gifts not loans and will be modest and infrequent. BUT no healthy football club can or should need to survive just on the generosity of the directors. Long term security can only be achieved if the community really wants and really supports the football club.
Our medium-term strategy for the club is based on this principle and has three main parts:

1. To secure the future of the club by ensuring that the business is self-sustaining i.e. that it does no worse than break even each year without additional borrowing or by spending capital.
2. To substantially reduce the historical debt burden and eliminate the threatening debt.
3. To make ground improvements year by year to the point where Marston Road is ready for National League football.

Success on the pitch is the key to any football club’s survival. At the start of the 2019 season we will be opening the Stafford Rangers Academy in conjunction with the Northern Premier League Football Academy and their sole providers, Eliteform Ltd In addition to making a modest annual contribution to total income, the Academy will provide locally grown talent for the first team in years to come.

Whether we can achieve financial stability is strongly influenced by the number of supporters coming through the turnstiles on match days which itself is directly related to how well the team is doing but we will not jeopardise the club’s future by increasing the playing budget beyond what we can afford – that lesson has been learned. If gates do improve we can consider giving the manger more to spend on the team. That means that we need all true Rangers fans to support the lads through thick and thin. We will continue to make reductions in costs wherever possible and will build on the cost cutting measures already made as outlined in the Chairman’s report.

The social club keeps the football club alive and our commercial team will continue to explore every possible way of raising money by exploiting its facilities. In particular, we will be looking to greatly increase the use of the club as a meeting venue during working hours.

Debt reduction

We have delegated this task to John Macmillan. Item 7 on the agenda is a key part of this strategy and we urge shareholders to support it. John will answer any questions on this topic.

Ground improvements

In the next 18 months we will build on the work which has already been done as outlined in the Chairman’s report. As with the playing budget, we will not attempt ground improvement projects that expose the club to financial risk. Wherever possible we will obtain grant aid from the Football Stadium Improvement Foundation, but they will only fund projects necessary to retain ground grading or which support the first team. For this reason, the football club is unable to offer any financial support to the Shed End project. It is not eligible for FSIF funding and we have no spare money to put into the project. So far as possible, the football club’s money for ground improvements will come from the Boost the Boro Lottery, from the sale of shares and from external third parties other than FSIF. We have three important projects earmarked for the next 18 months. The first is the resurfacing of the car park for which a FSIF grant application will be made in the next few days. We are certain that the improvement to the look of the social club this will make will increase income from room hire which will directly support the first team. Resurfacing the car park will also greatly improve ground safety. The second project is the replacement of the now near derelict away turnstiles which we hope to be able to achieve at no cost to the club. The third project is a major refurbishment of the office and changing room block – including the mandatory provision of changing facilities for female match officials – which is likely to take about 18 months to complete and will probably have to be done in stages as finances allow. The more support that fans give to the Lottery, the more we can do to improve the ground. The work will include major improvements to the insulation and the heating system will in turn reduce running costs.

John Bromley – Chairman
Carol Bailey – Vice-chair
Reg Bates – Director