Good afternoon, Iron fans.
We are now a just over a week away from the big kick off against Yeovil Town and I’m appealing for a little bit of help and understanding from everyone.
I’d like to try and implement a few ideas, firstly an offer to local girls' football teams to come along to any of our opening three fixtures. I’m happy to provide 20 junior and two adult tickets for two local teams to attend each fixture. The success of the Lionesses has inspired all football fans and hopefully moving forward we will have some exciting news regarding re-establishing women’s football here in Scunthorpe! We remember the Ironesses and hopefully we can reignite that. Please contact james.moody@scunthorpe-united.co.uk to register your interest.
I also would like to announce that the board has agreed to review ticketing prices for people who unfortunately find themselves on benefits or are struggling at the moment during the current financial climate. I would like to offer three family tickets for our next three fixtures (two adults and up to four juniors) free of charge. I want the young people of Scunthorpe to be able to watch live football at Glanford Park and want to help those that are finding it difficult at present. The supporters of the future and the opportunity to watch live football should be accessible to all. Again, please contact james.moody@scunthorpe-united.co.uk for this.
I’m in discussions with local businessman Roj Rahman about engaging with our South Asian community and I’m also looking for other hard to reach community partners, in particular our Eastern European friends to try and make football matches here at GP accessible. I need your help! I need season ticket holders, supporters young and old and our club sponsors to support me on these initiatives.
I was delighted to attend Bottesford on Friday to help distribute 50 lunches to Community Trust soccer camp attendees. Throughout the summer the Trust will distribute hundreds of meals to the young people of North Lincolnshire through NLC Fuelled Multi-sport Camps.
We need to have a footprint within our local community. Over the last 30 years the Community Trust has engaged with thousands of local people aged from 6 to 66! They continue to work hard to represent the club and the badge across the county with pride.
It was pleasing to see four young people attend the Youth Board drop in. The lads made a number of suggestions and ideas which I have taken on board, hopefully I will have a further meeting next week to firm up arrangements moving forward.
After attending the latest Iron Trust meeting last Wednesday night, I also caught up with Ashley from the Football Supporters Association to discuss fan engagement. He had some great examples of working together and was very complimentary about how as a club we were talking and listening to our supporters. Furthermore, a couple of long-standing supporters Mark and Steve popped into my office for a chat about the club along with long long-time fan Dave Beverley. Bev is always very forthright with his opinions which I totally embrace and will try my best to facilitate. As I’ve said my door is always open and a heart-warming chat with the likes of Roj Rahman makes my job so rewarding and enjoyable.
The pre-season schedule finishes at Farsley Celtic after facing a mixture of Under-23s, Championship, League One, League Two and National League North teams. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the games and seen progress on the pitch. The extreme heat last week was a real challenge, but hopefully you’ll all agree that with the new kits on show in the three homes games, we are moving in the right direction.
The Sheffield United game in particular was the highlight for me, but I must say the win at Bradford PA was equally enjoyable and a credit to Tony Daws and his staff up at the Academy for the production line of young talent.
The kits have been flying off the shelves and hopefully I can personally deliver a few next week along with some season tickets. I will be knocking on a few doors soon! Please bear with us with regards to the sizes out of stock. We have had unprecedented sales - three times as many as the previous two seasons (at least!) by this stage - so we have had to reorder a number of sizes with Macron, and this can unfortunately take up to three months.
Regarding kit, I have distributed some old match shirts to “One for the Lads” organisation via Des and Graham and I was also delighted to donate some kit to the A&E department at Scunthorpe General Hospital for an upcoming six-a-side competition that they are taking part in, in September. Again, it’s important to me and hopefully you that we continue to try and help our local community and support initiatives however big or small.
Peter Swann has announced via the Iron Bru podcast that he has a potential buyer for the club, and we need to be respectful in waiting for any further announcements.
With seven new signings delivered, we today welcomed Reagan Ogle to the club. He’s a player I know well from Hartlepool and he’s another that will add strength and versatility to the squad. There will be more signings to come during August, which will add more depth to the squad.
The Yeovil game on August 6th gives us an opportunity to showcase our club on and off the pitch. We are grafting really hard to get the stadium, pitch and surrounding areas in top condition. We want Glanford Park to be a venue for all of us to be proud of, a ground that is bouncing with excitement and anticipation.
We are hoping for a marquee / beer tent, live music and face painting with flags flying high as we try and embrace what our fans do up at The Honest Lawyer. We want the opening fixture to be our own Flag Day here at GP.
Come and support us, help us, give us energy and bang the drum that we are striving to be as good as we can be. We need everyone to get behind the lads, Keith and selfishly get behind me and let’s get the Iron rolling.
Shirts on, scarves round necks and Iron in the blood! I can’t wait, let’s show the world we are Scunthorpe United!
UTI
Lee