New Season statement from the Club

As you may have read elsewhere Manager, Neil Cugley has assembled our squad for preseason training as we look forward to the first warm-up game on 21 July away at Deal Town. Our second pre-season game will be at home to Canterbury City on Tuesday 24 July at 7:45 pm.

All the main players who took us to the play offs last season are re-signed with the added bonus that Paul Jones hopes to be fit to play which may just be what we need to improve on last time’s fourth place. Looking at the opposition there should be no team in Ryman South that we should fear.

I am pleased to introduce Andrew Cole who will be joining our management team looking after all match-day and other events. Andrew has a great deal of experience gained at Tonbridge Angels and I am sure he will be a valuable asset as we look to rebuild the board and admin side of the club. As time goes on I am sure Andrew will become involved in all aspects of running the club.

Andy Gledhill has kindly volunteered to carry on with keeping the accounts of the club having been mentored by Jim Pellett these last few months so I am confident we have this important area covered for the start of the season.

Richard Murrill is the new club secretary and we wish him well in this role as it is a very important position in the functioning of the club. We were lucky to have someone close at hand to take over the position.

Peter Young and Sue Bird will be re-opening the tea bar in the Wilf Armoury building on match-days and taking responsibility for boardroom hospitality and the players bar with the aim of increasing revenue for the club. The tea bar has been refurbished by the Supporters Club which now needs some new equipment to be ready for opening for the first time in several years.

With all the rain we have had this summer Gary Towse is preparing a superb playing surface at Cheriton Road which will see us through the season as hopefully fewer games will be played on it as we take a year out from reserve team football.

Audio Energy have signed up again for another season as main sponsor and we hope to announce shortly that we have secured some additional sponsorship from local companies. All this is very positive news for our club as we move away from the problems of the past towards a stable future.

The next stage is to bring together a nucleus of old and new volunteers to form a coherent management team to ensure we have a successful season for Folkestone Invicta FC.

We have been drawn away to Herne Bay in the Preliminary round of the FA Cup on 25 August and home to Merstham in the FA Trophy on 15 September with the new league fixtures to be released shortly I am confident that we can all look forward to another successful season for Folkestone Invicta FC.

M R M JENNER

CHAIRMAN