WELCOME FORM RICHARD ALLEN

RICHARD ALLEN DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL

Good evening and a very warm welcome to the Loughborough University Stadium for our first game of the 2021/22 season United Counties Premier Division fixture versus Melton Town FC.

Its exciting being back in league action and in front of a crowd. Even though restrictions have been lifted we would still ask you to keep both yourselves and others safe by following the advice and instructions from Government, The FA and the University.

We have had a good preseason with wins against Waltham Abbey and Hashtag United, draws against Lowestoft Town and Sheffield United U23’s and defeats versus West Hams and Derby County’s U23’s.

A few new faces have joined us as well as the returning players who played so well in last years truncated season. We have also seen Jamie Clapham join us and his experience and expertise will help us to push the team and programme even further. Hattie Simes has also joined us from Birmingham City as our Football Programme Manager. We wish both Alex Ackerley and Mat Stock all the best with their futures away from Loughborough and I want to take this opportunity to thank both for all their hard work and commitment to football at the University.

You may also have seen the news that our Women’s team have now merged with Loughborough Foxes to create a new Loughborough Lightning team. The University now has 6 Lightning teams: - Netball, Rugby, Cricket, Cycling, Wheelchair Basketball and now Football. With Issy Martin at its helm we will be starting our National League campaign on Sunday 15th August v Hull City.

We are pleased to welcome the players, supporters and directors of Melton Town and look forward to what we hope will be an exciting opening season game.