Football Focus Issue 70 | Page 15

Stafford Town Approach “The club’s buzzing anyway with thirty two teams. There is always lots of activity here – it’s great at the moment. We have an ethos at the club that we don’t allow shouting by coaching or parents with the idea that we want them to play football. We’ll never tell any players they’re not good enough; we’ll accommodate anybody that wants to take part in the game.” This Season “For the first team it has been a mixed campaign. We changed management at the end of last season and had a lot of good players at the start but didn’t pick up the results we’d have liked. We’ve had a bit more luck lately and it’s going very well now. Some of the other teams have been performing really well but for the youth teams that’s not the priority; it just comes as a reflection of the good set up that we have in place.” 2017 “We’re now looking to continue to develop the club. The first team are at Step 6 at the moment and we’re looking to gradually build the facility so that we can move up to Step 5 or even Step 4. We’re saving hard to be able to build a clubhouse on site and conform to the other requirements of the FA. We want to set a standard so that our kids can aspire to representing the team at First Team level. The higher up the pyramid we can get the better opportunities we will be able to offer them.” Women’s 1920 1945 1975 Over 120 years the same high standards, just a diffrent horse power Contact us today 01785 252 121 www.horsleyscommercial.co.uk Unit 2 Paton Close, Tollgate Park, Stafford, Staffordshire ST16 3EG “We initially started the women’s section about eight/ nine years ago and we’ve had a side since then but this year a number of our parents expressed a desire to play in that section. It seems they’re now seeing it as a way to enjoy themselves and get fit so we hope to have two team’s running in the near future. If anyone is interested I’d encourage them to give me a ring and I’ll put them in touch with the right people. We’ve got five girl’s teams coming through and that should continue to grow in the coming years. The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned.” Challenges “I’d say the biggest challenges for us are trying to keep pace with the number of people that want to play football and trying to progress the club at seniorlevel to make sure the kids have a vision of where they can play when they grow up. It is just a case of continuing to develop the club so is the best that it can be for our members. We’ve built a good reputation in the area by carrying out good work in the local community and we’re very very proud of that. Now we’re not looking to sit back; there are lots of things to do that will hopefully help the club progress and we’re looking forward to that.” Volunteers “We have eighty or ninety volunteers and without them what we do couldn’t happen. They do a phenomenal amount of work on an on-going basis. There are a lot of good people here at the club and without them we wouldn’t survive. They’re unbelievable. I’m very proud to be Chairman of this club and I really do take my hat off to the people that work their socks off to help us reach our goals.” www.footballfocusmag.com 15