Before the match against Oxford I was delighted to welcome Marstons, our South Stand sponsors.

The deal with Wolverhampton & Dudley, who are using Marstons as their brand, is probably the biggest commercial deal the club has ever done. They are a big organisation and one that we are looking to work closely with, not only in trying to sell their products, but also by using their marketing team to try to get more families and supporters down to the Abbey.

It's not easy to attract national brands at our level, but the Setanta deal will certainly help to increase exposure for clubs at this level and I know our commercial team are looking to take advantage of this.

While the commercial team look after that side of the club, as Chairman my main focus is on the team. I'm on the phone two or three times a day to Jimmy talking about the team and how we can strengthen, what we need and what we don't need.

It may still be early in the season, but there's never a bad time to top the table. You always hear Managers and Chairmen say 'we're not getting carried away', but at the end of the day we've got to enjoy our victories while we can. There's been a dark cloud over the Football Club over the past four or five years and it's been doom and gloom. OK, it's only three games but let's enjoy it - if we do enjoy our victories it makes us want to continue in that vein. It's not about getting carried away; it's about building a winning mentality, playing with a smile on our face and hopefully that will continue.

Not many people know that we were trying to call the Farsley game off because, on Monday afternoon, we had so many players with sickness that we didn't have a team to put out. We contacted the League to try to get the game postponed but we couldn't, so we had to play and it was a testimony to the lads. They weren't 100% fit but they put in a fantastic performance and that can hopefully bode well for the future.

There are a lot of games in quick succession at this time of the year and, while it's difficult, if the lads weren't playing they'd be training. Certainly when I played I'd rather have been playing than training. It does put pressures and stresses on your legs but at the same time I've always been a believer that the other eleven have got exactly the same problem. I don't think the lads would ever bring tiredness up as an excuse; if they're tired then so will the other team be.

Going back to the Farsley game it shows you what a positive approach the lads have got at the moment, because they could have easily fallen behind the excuse of being unwell over the weekend, but they didn't and it speaks volumes for them.

Part of the South Stand has been refurbished as a gym for the players. Jimmy is very aware that the lads need gym and weight sessions and I think we've seen the benefits of the work they've put in over the first three games, where we've looked fitter and stronger.

I've always said that if the team perform well on the pitch we'll be one of the best supported clubs in this league, and I think we've shown that with the Oxford and Farsley games. Not being disrespectful to Farsley, but if we had played them last year the attendance might have been in the low 2,000s rather than the upper 2,000s and after the good start we've had to the season I will be hoping for more good gates.

Thanks for your support

Lee Power
Chairman

Make Your Click Count For The U's - talk about it on the Message Board!

You are respectfully reminded that any article, as with all content on this website, unless otherwise stated, is subject to copyright © and the Official Cambridge United Website must be acknowledged as the original source including all quotes.

AT070828