A year of updates

With this being update number 52, that makes a whole year of Chairman's Updates. It's been a very busy year, we've made some great progress and made some mistakes, I feel we have learned lessons from all our mistakes and issues and the club is in a much better place now. We won't be resting on our laurels though and we will be doing everything we can to make the club even better.

Men's Team

It was a disappointing defeat against City of Liverpool in Ellesmere Port, the lads gave it their all, but it just wasn't to be. We are still in the play off places and the dynamic at the top of the table has changed again with Workington taking over from Marine at the summit.

We now have two very tough away games coming up. First up is Ramsbottom on Saturday which is always a tough place to go, followed by our rearranged fixture at Colne on the Tuesday. They are both going to be real tests with wins cementing our place in the play offs and I'm sure the lads will be right up for it.

Development Team

New manager Dean Vian took charge of his first game along with Gibbo on Sunday and it was a tough game to start with as they travelled to table toppers 1874 Northwich U21 and were just edged out by 1 goal to nil. There are definite signs of improvement with the team and I'm confident they'll do enough to stay in the higher league. The development team isn't really about wins and is more about performances and developing talent for the first team and Dean is the perfect coach to take that on.

Their next game is away at Stalybridge Celtic U21s at St Damian's RC Science College in Ashton-Under-Lyne (OL6 8BH) on Sunday 23rd January at 2pm.

ESPFA Academy

Ste Chaney's Academy team took on Brighouse Town at the APEC Taxis Stadium and ran out 3-0 winners, that continues their 100% start to the season. Their next game is against Skelmersdale United in the North Cup at the APEC Taxis Stadium on Thursday 3rd February at 12pm.

In other Academy news, the ESPFA academy have relocated their classroom and training activities away from the APEC Taxis Stadium. This was following discussions between the club and the ESPFA in regards to maintaining the pitch and avoiding excessive use. I would like to thank the ESPFA for their understanding and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. They will still be representing Runcorn Linnets and playing all home games at the APEC Taxis Stadium.

Board Appointments

As many of you will have seen, our newly elected board members Jack Walsh, Brendan Connolly and Paul Riley officially took up their Directorships by attending their first Trust Board meeting. At the same meeting we appointed Kel Hoose as Treasurer and co-opted him onto the board along with Paul Eastup. It's great to be able to add such expertise and experience to the board and I'm absolutely delighted that Paul has agreed to return as I was very sorry to see him go in the first place.

I believe we now have the strongest board in the club's history, and we will now be concentrating on taking the club forward.

AGM Update

Some progress has been made with processing the club accounts, Paul Eastup has worked really hard with them and should be in a position to send them over to our Accountants by the end of the month. We have stayed in contact with the Football Supporters Association throughout and Kel Hoose has been in contact with the Financial Conduct Authority about extending the deadline for submission of the accounts with the annual return and we are confident that this will be granted.

We anticipate that we will be able to hold the AGM before the end of March and will update everyone once we are able to confirm a date. I would once again like to apologise for the delay in holding the AGM and thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Thank you for reading.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman