New Year Cheer At Chaddy
Wed 12th January 2011 | Chadderton | By Ian Templeman
An unexpected financial windfall, and a position among the promotion contenders in Division One, means everyone at Chadderton is starting 2011 in a positive mood.
The windfall arrived courtesy of FA Cup sponsors and energy suppliers E-On by way of an "Energy Efficiency Makeover", which as well as developing facilities at the club's ground, will deliver ongoing long term benefits as Secretary Louise Robson explained.
"The makeover prize was a complete surprise, and the whole saga began when one of our junior team managers saw a competition on the FA website, and entered the club for it. I then got a call a few weeks back from E-On to say we had reached the final ten, and from there they then sent some representatives to come and do an inspection at the ground to see what sort of work they could do for us.
"After that, we then we got the call just before Christmas to say we had won an Energy Efficiency Makeover. It means that E-On will be carrying out a lot of work at the club to install energy efficient equipment. The work will include thermostatic controls, new light switches, new showers in the changing rooms, a new boiler, solar panels - although I don't know how much use we'll make of those in Chadderton - and various other pieces of work.
"In total the amount of work we will have completed has been valued at about £40,000 and will take about two weeks to complete, and we expect the work to start this week.
"Ongoing of course, we will also benefit from reduced energy costs as a result of the work, so there is a long term benefit to the club, as it should generate some extra income by way of us having reduced energy bills.
"We have been told that once the work has been completed, there will be a grand opening, when the FA Cup will be brought up to the ground and will be accompanied by a "football legend" - we don't know who that will be, that's as much as we know. We did ask if that could all be done on a matchday, but because of prior engagements it has to be done in midweek.
"But after years of bad news at Chadderton, it's nice to have a bit of luck for a change."
The club's problems in securing its future have been well documented on the league website in the past, but Louise reports that progress is being made.
"We are a lot more secure than we have been for a while, it's just a case of securing the lease on the land at the ground now. Before all the trouble started a couple of years ago, the land was designated as a public open space, and we had to go through a long process of having that changed so we could get a long term lease on the ground.
"That request is now going through the process of being approved by the council, but it has to go to public consultation before the land can officially be removed from being designated as a public open space, so that is next hurdle.
"At the moment we just on a rolling 12 month lease, which means we can't really plan to develop the ground, so that limits us to what we can do right now. But a couple of years ago we weren't really sure if the club was going to survive, so we are in a much more stable position now, and doing well in the league is an added bonus. It's looking a lot rosier now."
Progress also continues on the field, with manager Paul Buckley and his management team continuing to develop the settled squad that has been established over the past couple of years. With the team nicely positioned in the promotion race, Paul is upbeat about his side's prospects.
"We are very happy with the way things are going. We have picked up from where we left off last year and have continued to progress. Between myself and my management team we've been at the club for nearly five years and have finished fifth twice and fourth last season, so we feel there's no reason we can't keep that going and push on again.
"The majority of the squad have stayed with us, we've only lost a couple this year, and I think it's a great achievement for the club that so many of the players are happy to stay here. We've got clubs coming in for our players right, left and centre, but for whatever reason they want to stay here, which is a fantastic thing for us.
"I think they are now starting to think that they might get promotion, and you never know, we are not a bad side. A lot of the lads are young, but we've been up there last season and hopefully that will help us in the second half of the season."
Like most of the First Division managers interviewed for the league website this season, Paul believes that the promotion race this season is as open as it has ever been.
"It doesn't matter who you play in this league, if you are not on your game you'll get beaten. Anyone can beat anyone, and if you are not strong you'll get turned over, no matter who you are playing against.
"You only need to look back to last year when we were second bottom of the league with 11 points, and we ended up finishing fourth. You only have to go on a bit of a run to move right up the league and no matter who they are, anyone can do that. All you need is a settled squad and a bit of luck.
"If you look at some of our games this season, the AFC Blackpool game (last Saturday) was only the second time we haven't scored in a game all season, and the other game we didn't score in was Daisy Hill away when they beat us 1-0. As well as losing at Daisy Hill, we drew with Rochdale Town, and played Abbey Hey the other week and for 20 minutes they were well on top of us, and were unfortunate they didn't get something out the game.
"It doesn't matter who you play, you've got to put a shirt on and do a job and if you don't you get turned over. You have to prepare right, and make sure all the lads are on it when you turn up or you'll get beaten."
On a similar theme, Paul believes the promotion chase will go right to the wire.
"I wouldn't pick out any main contenders, I think you can go right down in to mid-table and there is only six or seven points separating someone in a promotion place from a team in mid-table, so I wouldn't put anybody down.
"AFC Blackpool have opened up a gap and have games in hand, but there's a long way to go yet. We went there last weekend and should have got something out of the game but we didn't do. In the second half they came at us a bit more, and we didn't create the type of chances we created in the first half, and we felt we should have had a penalty as well. But it didn't happen. We just have to pick ourselves up and go again now.
"We had been on a good run before it came to an end at Blackpool (Chadderton had won nine league games in a row) but we just have to get ready for the next game and go again."
New Year Cheer At Chaddy
Wed 12th January 2011 | Chadderton
By Ian Templeman
An unexpected financial windfall, and a position among the promotion contenders in Division One, means everyone at Chadderton is starting 2011 in a positive mood.
The windfall arrived courtesy of FA Cup sponsors and energy suppliers E-On by way of an "Energy Efficiency Makeover", which as well as developing facilities at the club's ground, will deliver ongoing long term benefits as Secretary Louise Robson explained.
"The makeover prize was a complete surprise, and the whole saga began when one of our junior team managers saw a competition on the FA website, and entered the club for it. I then got a call a few weeks back from E-On to say we had reached the final ten, and from there they then sent some representatives to come and do an inspection at the ground to see what sort of work they could do for us.
"After that, we then we got the call just before Christmas to say we had won an Energy Efficiency Makeover. It means that E-On will be carrying out a lot of work at the club to install energy efficient equipment. The work will include thermostatic controls, new light switches, new showers in the changing rooms, a new boiler, solar panels - although I don't know how much use we'll make of those in Chadderton - and various other pieces of work.
"In total the amount of work we will have completed has been valued at about £40,000 and will take about two weeks to complete, and we expect the work to start this week.
"Ongoing of course, we will also benefit from reduced energy costs as a result of the work, so there is a long term benefit to the club, as it should generate some extra income by way of us having reduced energy bills.
"We have been told that once the work has been completed, there will be a grand opening, when the FA Cup will be brought up to the ground and will be accompanied by a "football legend" - we don't know who that will be, that's as much as we know. We did ask if that could all be done on a matchday, but because of prior engagements it has to be done in midweek.
"But after years of bad news at Chadderton, it's nice to have a bit of luck for a change."
The club's problems in securing its future have been well documented on the league website in the past, but Louise reports that progress is being made.
"We are a lot more secure than we have been for a while, it's just a case of securing the lease on the land at the ground now. Before all the trouble started a couple of years ago, the land was designated as a public open space, and we had to go through a long process of having that changed so we could get a long term lease on the ground.
"That request is now going through the process of being approved by the council, but it has to go to public consultation before the land can officially be removed from being designated as a public open space, so that is next hurdle.
"At the moment we just on a rolling 12 month lease, which means we can't really plan to develop the ground, so that limits us to what we can do right now. But a couple of years ago we weren't really sure if the club was going to survive, so we are in a much more stable position now, and doing well in the league is an added bonus. It's looking a lot rosier now."
Progress also continues on the field, with manager Paul Buckley and his management team continuing to develop the settled squad that has been established over the past couple of years. With the team nicely positioned in the promotion race, Paul is upbeat about his side's prospects.
"We are very happy with the way things are going. We have picked up from where we left off last year and have continued to progress. Between myself and my management team we've been at the club for nearly five years and have finished fifth twice and fourth last season, so we feel there's no reason we can't keep that going and push on again.
"The majority of the squad have stayed with us, we've only lost a couple this year, and I think it's a great achievement for the club that so many of the players are happy to stay here. We've got clubs coming in for our players right, left and centre, but for whatever reason they want to stay here, which is a fantastic thing for us.
"I think they are now starting to think that they might get promotion, and you never know, we are not a bad side. A lot of the lads are young, but we've been up there last season and hopefully that will help us in the second half of the season."
Like most of the First Division managers interviewed for the league website this season, Paul believes that the promotion race this season is as open as it has ever been.
"It doesn't matter who you play in this league, if you are not on your game you'll get beaten. Anyone can beat anyone, and if you are not strong you'll get turned over, no matter who you are playing against.
"You only need to look back to last year when we were second bottom of the league with 11 points, and we ended up finishing fourth. You only have to go on a bit of a run to move right up the league and no matter who they are, anyone can do that. All you need is a settled squad and a bit of luck.
"If you look at some of our games this season, the AFC Blackpool game (last Saturday) was only the second time we haven't scored in a game all season, and the other game we didn't score in was Daisy Hill away when they beat us 1-0. As well as losing at Daisy Hill, we drew with Rochdale Town, and played Abbey Hey the other week and for 20 minutes they were well on top of us, and were unfortunate they didn't get something out the game.
"It doesn't matter who you play, you've got to put a shirt on and do a job and if you don't you get turned over. You have to prepare right, and make sure all the lads are on it when you turn up or you'll get beaten."
On a similar theme, Paul believes the promotion chase will go right to the wire.
"I wouldn't pick out any main contenders, I think you can go right down in to mid-table and there is only six or seven points separating someone in a promotion place from a team in mid-table, so I wouldn't put anybody down.
"AFC Blackpool have opened up a gap and have games in hand, but there's a long way to go yet. We went there last weekend and should have got something out of the game but we didn't do. In the second half they came at us a bit more, and we didn't create the type of chances we created in the first half, and we felt we should have had a penalty as well. But it didn't happen. We just have to pick ourselves up and go again now.
"We had been on a good run before it came to an end at Blackpool (Chadderton had won nine league games in a row) but we just have to get ready for the next game and go again."
