Alveston Bench Talk
Saturday 22 November 2003

Welcome to everyone connected with Alveston for this afternoon's fixture here at Tally Ho.

Tuesday night saw us overcome Shifnal Town 1-0 in a tightly fought encounter. We had the better of the first half with Steve Piearce volleying home from a corner after about 25 minutes. Shifnal were reduced to 10 men when one of their defenders was sent off for abusive language on the half-hour mark.

The second half was a pretty poor affair with Shifnal battling very hard and causing us one or two problems as we turned in a disappointing performance. However, results are all-important and breed confidence, which we had lacked going into the game on the back of a couple of poor results.

One of the positives of the night was that debutante Kevin Casson showed some good touches and will be a valuable addition to the team once he has gained full fitness.

Unfortunately Mickey Hart picked up an ankle knock on Tuesday and will miss today's game as will Dayle Speed, Mark Langley and Ross Bate due to either work or domestic commitments. Lyndon Price, Richard Frost, Mike Mason and Dave Blake are all still injured and I am unsure of the availability of a couple of others.

Other news at the club this week is that I have informed the chairman that I will be 'hanging up my managerial boots' at the end of the season as I will be retiring from the force in July 2004. John Black has also announced that he will be standing down from his position as Secretary of the Club at the end of the season.

I don't want anyone thinking that this will mean a time of instability or weakness at the club. We have both made our announcements in advance so that the club has plenty of time to look at the options and candidates for management roles of the team and committee and whether there is any need for re-structuring within the club.

John and I have invested too much time in the club to allow everything to become a 'damp squib' and we will fighting 'tooth and nail' to ensure that we provide a platform for the club to move onwards and upwards. Whilst we have had three disappointing years, we have now reached the situation where we have more 'footballing talent' within the force than we have had for some time and providing the player's show a decent level of commitment I still genuinely believe that the club has a good future.

Our target for this season is to get a 'top five' finish for both our teams and provide a sound platform for the club to advance to a situation where it is regularly challenging for honours.

Enjoy the game and we hope to see you down here for the game against Pershore Town a fortnight today.

Jim Scott