Good afternoon and welcome back to the Abbey Stadium for our first Saturday home match of the season.

I'd like to start by welcoming the players, directors and supporters of Crawley Town. I'd also like to welcome their manager, Steve Evans. I was player/coach to Steve towards the end of my playing career and let's just say that he is an interesting character.

I think Crawley has surprised a few people so far this season. To be fair to Steve, I don't think they've got one of the biggest budgets in the league and they've started really well. I think a lot of people thought they would struggle as they've got a lot of problems off the pitch, but Steve seems to have got a decent squad together and they've got off to a decent start so it's going to be a tough test for us.

The possible points deduction, which they are appealing against, has compounded the situation to make a difficult start to the season for them. But with the start that they have made, even if the appeal against the six-point deduction is turned down, I think they will be okay.

Our start hasn't been bad either. As I write these notes we are the only unbeaten team left in the Blue Square Premier. If anyone had said that at the season of the season people might have laughed. That's all credit to Jimmy and the lads but what we need to do now is not rest on our laurels, we need to try to stay unbeaten for as long as we can.

The first half of the Exeter game on Saturday was probably the worst I've seen us play all season. We looked very lacklustre, not very competitive, we were a mile off the pace and it was a bit of a surprise to see us like that. But fair play to Jim - that's what we pay him and Alan for - they roused the lads up at half time and the lads came out in the second half, put on a battling display, got the equaliser and we could have won it right at the end. So although you can't play well every week, at half time I thought we were going to be looking at a three or four-nil defeat. That we managed to come away with a point shows the sign of a good team.

We've demonstrated a never-say-die attitude throughout the start of the season. We've been behind in so many games, and that's something that Jimmy is keen to address, but it does show also the fighting qualities we have and are going to need between now and the end of the season to make us difficult to beat.

Scott Rendell has come into the side and has taken his chance well and when Lee Boylan's back he is going to give Jimmy a selection headache, while Leo Fortune-West has been a revelation.

He's 36-years-old and when we signed him we thought that we'd need to give him a rest every now and again, but he's running round like a 17-year-old and, at the time of writing these notes, is top goal scorer in the league and has just won the Player of the Month award. That's a credit to Leo himself and how well he's kept himself in shape. He's done this over a number of years; even when I was still playing Leo was banging in goals.

It's been a hectic start to the season with the number of games in quick succession, but we can't complain. The lads love playing, if they weren't playing they'd be training and if you ask any footballer they'd always rather play than train. So I don't think the schedule is going to be a problem, it's a level playing field, everyone's in the same situation and I think we've handled it as well as any.

Jimmy had one or two players that he wanted to bring in before the transfer window closed; he made enquiries and unfortunately the clubs didn't want to let any go. We had a couple of enquiries for a couple of our fringe players but we're in the same boat - at the start of the season people are very nervous about the depth of their squads and they just weren't prepared to let these lads go. We'll have to go with what we've got - we're very happy with the squad - and we'll see where it brings us to in January when the window opens again.

We've allowed Jimmy to go slightly over the playing budget, so we are up to our limit, but the budget that we have given him is a healthy one and one that it looks like he has spent very wisely. But if the situation changes then, as we have done in the past as a board, we'll pull the cushions up on the settee to see what we can find.

Going back to the traditional stripes on the home shirt has gone down fantastically well and sales have been going phenomenally well; that's credit to Heather and her team and our new shop licensee, Bob, who has put in a lot of hours. Many of our journalistic and media friends are delighted that they can read players names and numbers now for a change!

In closing I'd like to thank our fans for their support so far this season; enjoy the match.

Lee Power
Chairman

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