WELCOMETOTHESETT From the Chairman …

As Chairman of Bugbrooke St Michael’s Football Club I would like to offer you a warm welcome to The Sett and hope that you have an enjoyable visit.

Here at Bugbrooke St Michaels we are working hard to develop a club with a strong inclusive ethos, offering opportunities for players of all ages and abilities.

We are extremely proud of our youth development programme, supporting players from seven all the way up to eighteen. Many of our young players go on to have success with one of adult teams, with some players going on to even bigger and better things!

There is a great wealth of local support for the club, everyone that helps does so on a voluntary basis and through everyone’s hard work and dedication we have been able to achieve and maintain FA Accredited status.

Whilst some clubs choose to reinvest their revenue into players wages, here at Bugbrooke we hold a different set of values. All of our profits go into upgrading our equipment and facilities, building a solid future-proof foundation that will be here for future generations to enjoy.

Whilst this can sometimes hold us back from gaining huge success on the pitch, we feel our excellent facilities, youth development programme and ethos on community set us apart from other clubs.

Success and progression starts from the beginnings.

Thank you for your support today, we hope that you enjoy the game, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Kevin Gardner, Chairman

Bugbrooke St Michaels Football Club would like to place on record our thanks to our team of volunteers, our advertisers and sponsors.

And just like that we are back at the Sett for what we hope will be another entertaining season of football.

We’d like to start by extending a warm welcome to the players, officials and supporters of Racing Club Warwick who are this evening’s visitors to the Sett for what is our opening home fixture in the United Counties Premier Division South.

Tonight’s game comes hot on the heels of our season opener at St Neots on Saturday where a 3-0 defeat wasn’t the result that we’d hoped for. That said, there were positives to take from the game, which gives us something to build on as we “get back on the horse” this evening.

Looking ahead to the season, we are realistic and know the challenge that lies ahead. This league is tough. It’s unforgiving and relentless with the increase to twenty teams meaning that the schedule will often see us playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday.

Some would say that we overachieved last season, especially when you consider the size of the clubs (and budgets) that we are up against. On paper it looks a stronger league this time around with numerous teams expected to challenge at the top end of the table including tonight’s opponents.

That said we will not shirk away from the challenge, yes, we will have difficult periods however we are also confident that we have the players and quality within the squad to surprise a few this season – time will tell!

Looking at the squad, starting the season in July, prime holiday season, is never easy. Availability is impacted however, it’s the same for every club at our level and even with a handful of key players missing we were still able to field a strong side on Saturday which included debuts for summer signings Maurice Alhassan, Joel Powell and Callum Calver. We are sure that they will be welcomed at the Sett and that all three will prove their worth over the course of the season.

We were also able to call upon Tom Binder, who feels like a new signing having missed last season due to injury. It was great to have him back on the pitch as a second half substitute, and as he builds his fitness and with that his confidence, we are sure that you will see the value that he brings to the team.

Anyway, thank you for your support, enjoy the game and we look forward to seeing you back at the Sett on Saturday when we host Step 4 side Hinckley LRFC in the FA Cup.