Goole
football club to apply for development grants which in turn
would allow the football club to grow.
“Unfortunately, while we were having what we thought
was off field success, other disasters were happening in the
club. The chairman/Vice Chairman stood down after several
years, a new Chairman took over, but had to stand down after
a few weeks because of pressure of work.
“I had agreed to assist the new chairman, but when he
had to stand down, I was left as the ‘only person standing’,
and assumed the chairmanship through default. My fellow
supporter from the terrace Jack Ewing agreed to join me as
Vice Chairman. Neither of us had any previous experience of
running a football club, and doing things like setting playing
budgets. However, we were prepared to give it a go. But the
problems unfortunately, kept mounting.
“Our manager, who at the public meeting we called when
we took over, assured us he had eight or nine players signed on
for the forthcoming season, and that pre-season training was in
hand. As it turned out, when he resigned the following week,
with just a few weeks to go before the start of the new season,
there were no players signed on.
“Fortunately, two existing players (Derry Robson, Steve
Jeffs) agreed to take over the team management. Without
their timely intervention, I doubt that there would be a club
today. The club had no money, but also no debts, so setting the
playing budget was a challenge. At the same time, because we
had taken over the management of the ground we were facing
costs like ground/pitch maintenance, CCTV, H & S, Electric,
Gas, Water, etc.
“Well, some ten months on, we are still around. We have
opened up the VPG to more teams/more age groups, than in
recent years. We have an amateur rugby league side operating
from the ground, and we are looking to start girls/ladies
football next month. We will have an U23s team for the first
time in our history, and talks are in progress to ‘associate’ local
youth teams under the club banner.
“The team management has evolved over the last ten
months, in that we are now into our third change of managers.
Having been relegated to the North Eastern Counties Premier
league at the end of the 2017/18 season, we find ourselves
3rd from bottom at the end of the season with a win in our
final game against Hall Road Rangers keeping us up. That is
counted as a great success given where we were at the start of
the season.
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Goole Branch
Tel: 01405 763853
157 Boothferry Road,
Goole, East Yorkshire,
DN14 6AL
Howden Branch
Tel: 01430 430230
21 Market Place,
Howden, East Yorkshire,
DN14 7BL
“Planning for next season, is already in hand. With no
restrictions on ground use, planning of preseason friendlies is
already under way. With a year’s experience under our belt,
and a settled team management, we will better prepared.
“Our aim of being in the Evo Stick Premier league for season
2023/24 still remains our long-term goal. At the same time we
want to gain the extended lease on the VPG, that allows us to
go out and obtain sufficient funding, to develop the VPG into a
modern day community stadium.”
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