Ian Mather CEO
Welcome to The Imps and all of their many travelling fans. Last year saw Lincoln just miss out on promotion to the Championship and despite their slow start to the season, they will most definitely provide tough opposition today. You have to go back to December 1995 for the last time the U’s beat Lincoln but all runs have to end sometime… We missed out on playing last week due to the Doncaster game being postponed because of international call ups, but winning the last two league games, plus a strong performance against Oxford in the EFL Trophy, show what this team is capable of. The Trophy game was a great opportunity to give some of our academy players first team exposure and they did well. It is one of the aims of the club to develop young talent and to see Liam Bennett, Ben Worman, Mamadau Jobe and Kai Yearn perform so well is a great indicator for the future. A special mention is due for Kai who became the youngest ever goal scorer for the U’s, and to do it on his debut was brilliant. Last week also saw the launch of the Community Trust plan for the next three years. The Trust has come a long way in the
last 10 years. If you are not aware of what the Trust has achieved, and plans for the future, do have a look at the Strategic Plan. Here are just some of the highlights: The Trust generates income in excess of £400,000 per year and uses this to run over 25 programmes in over 20 venues. There are 17.5 staff and 20+ volunteers delivering across four key areas – Community Engagement, Wellbeing, Inclusion and Education & Skills. The programmes do have real impact on many lives – old and young. It reaches those with all sorts of disabilities. When people say “we are more than just a football club” the work of the Trust shows that is very true. The other major event of the week was the formal launch of Fair Game. We are founder members of this group of clubs who are campaigning for changes to the way that football is governed with the aim of making the game more sustainable. I am pleased to say that Lincoln are also members. We are gaining a lot of support for the ideas being put forward, including from many politicians including Cambridge MP, Daniel Zeichner. Do have a look at the website. So much for activity off the pitch – we will have a large crowd today. Get behind the U’s. Enjoy the game. ■ www.cambridge-united.co.uk
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