News from Sittingbourne FC

CommunityAd heard all the latest news from Sittingbourne FC’s Peter Pitts.

Things have certainly picked up a lot since my last article when I wrote about how relegation works in our division. We were deeply mired in the relegation battle but as I write this piece we have just drawn away to Chatham Town who are fighting for our divisions championship and it’s a game that we were the better side in the second half. That is now three draws away to sides who are in the top 5 of the league, so we seem now to be getting there. Those games were all played on artificial pitches and I don’t know if it’s just me but the game doesn’t seem the same somehow on those pitches with the huge bounce that you can get. However, grass pitches, and we have 5, do take a lot of maintenance, including in the summer when the pitch has to be ready for the vigour’s of the season. This year for, the first time, we are using contractors Scott’s Pitch Care to work on the main pitch and they have done a fantastic job, whilst our small band of ground volunteers work on the other pitches… and they too have done a great job.

Our new manager Ryan Maxwell has recruited a number of new players, many of whom have plied their trade higher up. The pick of the new players is probably Joe Ellul who was Maidstone United supporters’ Player of the Year last season and the big centre half certainly delivered with some excellent performances. Our record under Ryan since he joined, as I write, is now 3 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses.

The Saturday before writing this piece was my first visit to the revamped Chatham Town ground since the artificial pitch and the extra facilities were put in place. It’s certainly an impressive set up for our level and I see that they have plans in place for a full scale rebuild on the site… watch this space. We are still awaiting news of our proposed new ground that is planned to be just off of a new junction 5A east of the town off of the M2 that will lead to the new Highsted Park development. You can read about the proposals on our website www.sittingbournefc.co.uk. We are aware that any building on the countryside is a problem for many but unfortunately the alternative is to make the existing town even more busy and polluted.

There is lots going on behind the scene at our club like ours, and one of the key non-playing posts is club secretary. Our secretary, Edward Lucas, has now earned a long-earned rest from the admin side of football and retires at the end of the season leaving a vacancy for club secretary. Edward has been club secretary at Ramsgate and Whyteleafe over a number of years as well as us. The secretary’s role includes liaising with the league, signing players, both contract and non-contract and knowing the rules of the Football Association and the league backwards. For some years now I have acted as back up secretary and know just how time consuming it can be. The secretary uses an online system that was devised and used by the Premier League and in some way, it’s made things easier, however it does take time to learn the ins and outs of the system. If any reader fancies getting involved in the admin side of Sittingbourne Football club or helping in any way then please contact me at [email protected].

by Peter Pitts