Melksham Town Football Club, chairman Dave Wiltshire reflects on what has been a successful season for the club and looks forward to the future at Oakfields.
Although disappointed not to be promoted to the Southern League, the club are still on a high after finishing third in the Toolstation Premier League Division and winning the Les Phillips Cup for the first time in the club’s history.
Now the club looks forward to the future of the club and what it can build on for what is hopefully a successful season.
Dave said, “The committee took on the running of the club seven years ago with the main aim to make it more of a community club and use local players. We felt it was also very important to have just one major club in the town, so the seniors and youth side joined forces to become one of the biggest non- league football set-ups in the south west, if not the country. This vision and dedication had led to the council and the Football Foundation supporting our vision and this has led to us being here today and for hopefully another 125 years.
“Currently we have 36 youth teams including a under 18s team, a ladies’ team, five senior men’s teams and we have just set up a walking football team. We are also looking to set up a veterans’ team and a disability team. Our aim is to provide football for players of all abilities within our community and try to fit them into teams that suits their levels and what they feel comfortable in. Obviously if we can find a star of the future we would be more than delighted.
“Predominately we are a football club and the ambition is that we try to progress to the best levels that we can. If you don’t have ambition, the whole thing will become stale at some point, but we will only ever try to progress if it fits in with our own ethos as well budget controls.
“Our fantastic new facility will further enhance our club. What we have here is brilliant and we have become the envy of lots of other clubs. Our rivals, together with others, can’t understand how we can achieve all this in little old Melksham. We are very lucky to have so many dedicated people at our club all helping, from players, coaches, managers, parents, supporters and of course the sponsors. We have all the ingredients to be successful if we all work together.
“Our task now is that we try to improve and progress year by year. We have always stated that we will try to run the club our way and not get carried away, or try to match other teams for the sake of any short-term gain.
“From the middle of January this year, we have seen over 6,000 people attend our first team games which is truly amazing for the standard we are at. Although a little conscious that we are not the cheapest when it came to board sponsorship, our plan has been backed up by the amount of people that have not only attended our games, but are using the site.
“Pre-season home friendlies have already been organised and with Bristol Rovers, Swindon Town and Chippenham Town all due to play us during the month of July, we are hoping for bumper attendances with lots of new people seeing our site for the first time.”