My aim is to bond everyone, says new Folkestone Invicta chairman

There have been board room changes at Folkestone Invicta, a side currently struggling in the bottom two in the Ryman Premier League table, but Gordon Wallis explains why he’s replaced Bob Dix, whose been chairman at the Cheriton Road club for the past nine years.

Speaking to www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk Mr Wallis said: “It’s a bit of a surprise to be perfectly frank. After the Shareholder’s Meeting last Tuesday the Board had a meeting and it took us all by surprise when Bob said he wanted to stand down but still wanted to be involved in the Football Club as a Director and General Manager.

“We then organised to have another meeting on Friday and in the meantime to go away and think about it. On Friday the Board asked me if I would be prepared to stand as Chairman. It came as a bit of a surprise but it was clear that I had all the support of the Board and that’s very important and so I agreed”.

Folkestone’s new Chairman is excited about the future prospects for the Club, on and off the field of play as he seeks to build on the foundations laid by his predecessor in order to take the Club to the next level.

“I believe wholeheartedly in Folkestone Invicta Football Club”, commented Wallis. “It has got terrific potential, I believe, over and above many other clubs. It has debts but the debts are manageable and minimal compared to many others. It has a ground which is in a prime position to get our new lease initially and then to invest in, particularly in Stripes in order to get a good return for the Football Club.

"There’s a good group of people at the Club, Folkestone has a big population, we’ve got some terrific fans and a Board that are Folkestone Invicta supporters who really want to see a team on the pitch we can all be proud of”.

Since becoming a Director last January, Gordon has brought a vast amount of experience and knowledge to the Buzzlines Stadium. He has been heavily involved in the running of several non league clubs including Kent Ryman Premier League rivals Margate and Dover Athletic, currently spending a third season in Ryman Division One.

He said: “The role of Chairman is very time consuming and there are people that have been involved in the Football Club a lot longer than myself and I was given the nod based I think on my previous experience in football.

“It does hold you in good stead and you learn from your mistakes and I’ve made some in the past and I hopefully won’t repeat them here at Folkestone.

“I’ve no doubt the new Board has made progress since its induction. I do think though that about a year ago we should’ve devised a much more stable programme and stuck to it. This is something I am hoping to do in the next week or so, to get ourselves an agreed programme. What we do have however, is unity in the Board and they are all motivated to take the Football Club forward and even further on and off the pitch.”

Speaking about his first objectives, Mr Wallis explained: “My main aim initially is to bond everyone at the Football Club. The Board, the Supporters Club, Stripes, the fans, everybody, I want everyone involved in the Football Club working together and if we can achieve that then it’ll be very positive basis to move forward and to have a team we can all be proud of.

“Communication is key to this and I’m going to get round to talking to everybody I can possibly talk to; listening to views, listening to ideas, listening to complaints, listening to positive aspects and to make sure everybody at the Club knows that they can always approach me as I’ll be at most games and I think that’s key to motivate everyone at the Football Club.

“There are a lot of things people do for the Club that no-one even knows about and I want those people to know they feel part of the Football Club and that we as a Board are approachable. We’re not a level above everyone else; we’re all the same as we’re supporters of Folkestone Invicta and the only difference is that we’re there to hopefully manage, but only as trustees.”

The new Chairman has already earmarked various areas of the ground that he wishes to improve and in addition to the reintroduction of the tea bar by the player’s tunnel, the kitchen at the Stripes Club is due to be reopened shortly.

He explained: “The ground is beginning to look a bit tired and there are areas that we can improve that aren’t necessarily going to produce income but could attract potential sponsors if they see it neat and tidy and that could swing them to support the club financially – first impressions cannot be underestimated.

“Stripes itself has enormous potential and the reopening of the kitchen will provide income for the Club which has been lacking for the last two years. Stripes could provide the Club with a good weekly income and that is where I want to concentrate a lot of my efforts.”

Commercial Manager Peter Young has recently secured a ‘back of shirt’ sponsorship deal with Kent brewer Shepherd Neame who replace Courage as the drinks supplier for Stripes. Anybody interested in hiring Stripes for functions should contact Peter Young or Jane Smith and their contact details can be found on the club website.

With the present situation on the field having seen Invicta lose their last six matches in all competitions, the Folkestone faithful will no doubt be wondering whether the new Chairman will be allocating additional funds to the playing budget of Manager Neil Cugley.

Mr Wallis said: “It’s too early to say at the present time and Neil won’t have any additional money immediately. We’ve got to look at the financial structure and be realistic in spending that money. We’ve got to have a proper budget that we know we’re going to be able to maintain and it’s not fair to anybody when we have x players at the start of the season and then we have to unload players during the season which appears to be the history of the Football Club over the past few seasons.

“I want to guarantee a certain amount of money for a season and if we have any additional money coming into the Club then that will go straight into the playing budget.

“For the past few seasons the Football Club has been chasing shadows and you cannot run a successful football club on that basis”.

The Seasiders will be seeking to return to winning ways this Saturday with the visit of Horsham to the Buzzlines Stadium.

Cugley will be hoping he has a fully fit squad to choose from, with the recent return to the squad of defender Samuel Kola Okikiolu and striker Leigh Bremner being a timely boost for the manager.

Fans will be hoping influential player-coach Mark Saunders will also be making a welcome return to action at the weekend, at the heart of the Invicta midfield.

The Chairman said: “I think I’ve only seen two games, maybe three which has done justice to the ability of the players. There have been all sorts of reasons for this; injuries and loss of form for example which create a continuous change in the players and we have only seen the same team from the previous game on two occasions I think.

“The fans complain that the players look lost sometimes but of course they’re going to be lost if they haven’t played together consistently. We need to have players playing week in week out so they can get to know each other and I can only help by giving the manager stability in the playing budget.”

Mr Wallis takes over from Mr Bob Dix, who explained his reasons for stepping down as chairman after nine years.

Mr Dix will now take up a position of director on the board and will continue to work for the club in earnest in his general manager role.

“A year ago I realised the Board needed strengthening and I asked if people would come on the Board and help out and Gordon was actually one of the first people to contact me and he wanted to know more about the Club and how it was run and we had a couple of meetings,” explained Mr Dix.

“I have been prepared to step down for a long time now as I knew I had taken the Club as far as I could really and obviously over the last few weeks you haven’t got to be a magician to realise that something needed to be changed and we certainly needed more input somewhere. When we had the Board meeting last week I said I was going to step down and asked then would anyone want to do the job”.

At a time in football where ‘chop and change’ is all too familiar – evidence of which can be viewed at several local clubs – it is a true testament to Mr Dix who has now been at the Club for over 16 years, nine of which in the role of Chairman where he has presided over the running of the Club through some often extremely testing times with only very limited numbers at Board level.

January of this year marked a monumental step in the history of the Football Club when the Board was strengthened with the announcement of FOUR new Directors; Gordon Wallis, Nigel Busbridge, Lynn Woods and Andy Ingleston whilst Jim Pellatt came in and took on the large responsibility of Company Secretary.

Asked whether it was difficult to step down, Mr Dix remarked, “Not at all, I never wanted to be Chairman in the first place! I’m a General Manager and I like to do the everyday day things over at the Club. Now I’ll be going back to what I was doing the first time I came to the Club and I’ve been here for about 16, 17 years and half of those were as General Manager doing the everyday things that need doing which are quite important – silly little things I guess which people don’t know about.

“I’ve got to honest and say I’m looking forward to getting back to being General Manager as I’ve been wanting to get rid of the job of Chairman for two or three years and I now feel I can do what I want to do at the Club. But we’ve achieved a lot in 16 years in getting a decent club back to the town and getting it senior status, we’ve achieved a hell of a lot really. We’ve got a very loyal bunch of people at the Club who have helped us out for years and continue to do so.”

Having handed over the position of Chairman to Mr Wallis, Mr Dix feels the Board have selected the ‘right man’ for the job.

“Gordon is very knowledgeable about football and he’s been involved in non league football a lot longer than I have and he’s seen it all really at Margate and at other clubs he’s been involved in.

“I’d like to think that I’ve handed over with the groundwork in place for something bigger to be built on and he certainly has the full support of the Board in what he wants to achieve. The time is certainly right for a change.”

Speaking about the highs during his tenure as Chairman and his time at the Buzzlines Stadium Bob joked, “Well there hasn’t been many! But look at the ground for instance; when I first got to the Club Stripes was closed and so was the main pavilion, the pitch was terrible, the ground overall was terrible.

“We accommodated West Ham when we had the flood damage and it was terrific. I wasn’t the Chairman then but I was General Manager and we coped with it all and having got the lease on Stripes we got it open again – without Stripes there is no Football Club, it is absolutely crucial.

“We’re a stable club now and generally we are in a reasonable position although on the football side we are having an unfortunate run recently.”

Indeed everyone connected with the Club is hoping for an improved run of results, starting with the Ryman Premier League match against Horsham this Saturday at Cheriton Road.

The Seasiders were though unlucky not to come back from AFC Hornchurch last Saturday without any points, having been defeated 2-1 by a penalty in the dying minutes of the match, harshly awarded against goalkeeper Charlie Mitten.

Musing over some of the low points about his time as Chairman, Dix recalled the loss to Billericay Town in the Fourth Qualifying Round of the F.A Cup this season as a big disappointment. Folkestone went out defeated 2-0, in a lacklustre performance at the Buzzlines Stadium.

“Well we just didn’t compete against them did we? It was a big game and we haven’t performed in big games at home unfortunately but yet we do seem to do it away!”

This Saturday’s opponents have had an impressive Cup run, having only just been knocked out by League One side Swansea City 6-2 in a Second Round replay. The League One side had to twice come from behind though to progress to the Third Round which has seen them drawn against another non league outfit, Havant & Waterlooville.

Folkestone fans will be eager to witness the return of favourite Stuart Myall this Saturday. The former Invicta midfielder, released by the Club last season, now plies his trade at right back for Horsham. Creative Myall will undoubtedly be remembered for an exquisite strike against AFC Wimbledon in the 2005/2006 season which secured a 1-0 victory for the Seasiders over the big spending Dons, a goal duly awarded goal of the season.

“The League has improved a hell of a lot and there is more money about and it’s going to be harder again this year. Finance is crucial and this year we’ve spent more on the playing budget than we’ve ever spent. Look at Staines, look at Horsham who have both had Cup runs and they’ll now have more money to put in. They’ll be able to get a couple of players each and it will be hard and it is so competitive, even at this level. Yes we’ve had a bad run recently, but we will improve”, said Mr Dix.

Article courtesy of www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Folkestone Invicta v Horsham
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 15^th December 2007
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Buzzlines Stadium, Cheriton Road, Folkestone, Kent CT19 5JU