SOUTH STAND
o Although construction work has progressed well, the South Stand and concourse will unfortunately not be ready for the first fixture of the season. It is hoped that works will be complete and the subsequent approval from the Safety Advisory Group received around the end of August, which will mean that away fans will continue to be hosted in the East Stand until the South Stand is fully operational.

NORTH STAND IMPROVEMENTS
o Additional walkways have now been introduced into the North Stand to allow easier access in and out of the terraced areas, which hopefully will make them feel less ‘cramped’ and enhance the matchday experience for those using the stand. The same changes will be made to the East Stand going forward, but due to the workload of the contractors, the changes will be made over the first few weeks of the season.

SCREEN/SCOREBOARD
o I am delighted to say that a large screen (scoreboard) has been installed, which has been kindly sponsored by Peter Prime of Prime Limousines. We are extremely grateful for Peter’s support on this. It is unlikely that the screen will be fully operational until the first home fixture of the new season, but when it is, we are sure that it will really enhance the matchday experience.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CUP
o We will be participating in the National League Cup again for the coming season. This has a number of benefits:

- We have fixtures where fringe players, players coming back from injury and under-23s players can gain valuable match time.

- It is a great opportunity to see the Premier League stars of the future (and some existing Premier League players) here at the Jakemans Community Stadium.

- It gives us the opportunity to build relationships with the visiting Premier League clubs, where hopefully we can look to explore loans or other ways of working together.

- It supports the Premier League who contribute £1 million each season to the National League Cup – and remain extremely committed to it.

- It has provided some excellent games here at the Jakemans Community Stadium, which have been well supported and, of course, has provided vital income into the club. That income can rise to around £100,000 if we progress in the competition – and keep receiving the fantastic support that we have had from our fans to date.

NATIONAL LEAGUE DIRECTIVE & BEHAVIOUR
o Under a new National League directive, under-14s MUST now be accompanied by a responsible adult to all games.

o We continue to work under the FA Action Plan. Our fans have responded well to this and incidents of a homophobic or racial nature have not re-occurred. We need to make sure this continues, not only to comply with FA requirements, but to show to the football world what a great, inclusive club we are.

NEW KIT
o We have changed suppliers from Umbro to New Balance. We will be wearing our new home kit against Lincoln City on Saturday, with replica shirts set to go on sale later in the month. Hopefully supporters will like the new designs. We will provide a full update on the release of our new kits over the coming days.

GENERAL
o We are delighted to confirm that 890 season tickets have been sold so far. Thank you to everyone for your support.

o Paul and the scouts have worked really hard over the summer months, and we are delighted with the signings that we have made. Work continues to fill the final flew slots, but we will continue to be patient to ensure that we get the right players – and the best value for the club. Some players have left the club, and we thank them for all their efforts during the time here and wish them all the very best for the future.

o A band of volunteers have also been busy over the summer months making sure the stadium is ready for the new season, and our heartfelt thanks go to them.

o BUSA continue to grow and evolve, all with the total focus on supporting the club and representing the fans. We were pleased to help them put in place a payment system which now allows fans to sign up for membership online.

o We thank everyone who responded to our (very long) questionnaire! With such great participation, it is taking time for us analyse the responses. In due course we will feed back the results, and how we are embracing suggestions made where we can.

FINALLY
o We thank everyone for your ongoing support. We secured a very good final position in the National League last time out and, of course, our aim is to improve on that position again this season. Since returning to the National League the support has been unbelievable, and hopefully we can continue to improve on and off the pitch to reward such fantastic support.