Ashford showing the green shoots of recovery

Friday 22nd May 2009

ASHFORD TOWN owner Don Crosbie has broken his close season silence to update concerned supporters about the current situation at the club, writes Stephen McCartney.

As promised by Nuts & Bolts' assistant manager Hugo Langton this week, the Ryman League Division One South club have issued a statement this evening to keep everyone informed on what's going on at Homelands Stadium - and just like Langton's interview, things, thankfully appear to be positive.

Mr Crosbie spoke to the Supporters' Club regarding his intentions and plans for the future of the club, which appeared to be bleak following his recent heart attack and a period of silence, which caused plenty of speculation and concern about the club's future on fans' forums.

In the statement, sent to www.kentishfootball.co.uk tonight, Mr Crosbie would like to thank the many supporters who sent him good wishes during his recent illness and he's now on the mend and on the way back after seven weeks and "fighting fit."

However, in order to ease the workload for Mr Crosbie, Dave Boniface (commercial manager) and Dave Thurston (the new general operatioins manager) will assist the chairman, who will free up some of his time to pursue other ways in which revenue can be raised for the benefit of the club.

"Dave Boniface has not been present at the club for a while as he has felt he was being restricted in his efforts to raise awareness of the facilities that are on offer at the club, these restrictions have now been lifted," explained the statement.

Full-back Daniel Brathwaite recently voiced his concern over the lack of payment from the club, but the statement insisted that players will get what's owed to them.

"A meeting took place this week between Don, Steve Lovell (first team manager) and Sean Ray (captain) to discuss the issue of the non payment of the players wages.

"Don wishes to publicly apologise to the players for this occurence.

"An agreement has now been reached with the players being paid, which will resolve this matter.

"This means that as soon as Steve Lovell returns from his holiday in Portugal, he will be speaking with the players in order to start restructuring the team ready for the season of the new season.

When quizzed which division the club will be playing in next season, Mr Crosbie replied, "Ryman League Division One South! A playing budget has also been agreed and Steve will issue his own statement as to the team selection."

Since Mr Crosbie has been out of hospital, he has been made aware of lots of rumours and speculation about the club.

"Yes, there are differences between myself and Tony Betteridge, my business partner in certain ventures, but these will be resolved at boardroom level and I will not answer to rumours," said Mr Crosbie.

"I can, however, confirm that Tony is not interested in pursuing the idea of the Sports Village or contributing to the progress of Ashford Town Football Club, but the football club has approximately 15 years left on the lease to play football at Homelands and this is what I want to guarantee."

Mr Crosbie also categorically stated that he will not release his 50% shares of the club to the detriment of the football club.

There will be an open forum meeting before the start of the season in July in order to discuss suggestions for the betterment of the club and to also give an up to minute progress report.

Quotes courtesy of www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk