Good evening everyone,
Having mulled over, slept on and digested yesterday’s game and the ensuing social media fallout, I feel compelled to pen a few words.
Yes, we lost a game against Crusaders in the opening 30 minutes and didn’t compete as we would have liked or expected. I as Chairman accept that, as have both the manager and players, we just didn’t do ourselves justice, we will break it down, analyse it and endeavour to ensure we put things right.
I’m on record previously as saying that as supporters, you pay your money and are entitled to your opinion, I stand by that wholeheartedly but I do question the merits of tearing the back out of our management, players and indeed rounding on ourselves, on the back of a bump that was to be expected along the road, within this Premiership journey.
Within the next 10 days, we welcome both league leaders Glentoran and current champions Linfield to Inver Park, these are massive occasions for our club and our town, that we should be relishing and embracing.
The players and management need our unrelenting support as we embark on this period, not dissenting voices. We need to stick together, park yesterday and move on.
If we are not all pulling in the same direction, we won’t get to where we all want to be, that my friends is simple.
I had a few jokey ‘Sort it Out’ and ‘Sack the Board’ comments aimed at me; I also had a few more colourful ones but that goes with the territory. If I for one minute didn’t think I could add value or continue to help craft and drive this club forward, I would know it myself but I firmly hope and believe that day is a long, long way off.
We had roughly 500 travelling fans yesterday, which was outstanding. Not for the first time this season, comment was passed by our hosts about the number of women and children we had in our rank. This family culture and atmosphere is very important to what we are trying to build, we must nurture it and again work at it together.
Seeing three and four generations of families come together on a Saturday is special, ensuring the older and less mobile generation can attend is important and to that end yesterday saw the first of our mini bus runs to help make this happen. Nat Woodside is kindly championing this and will continue to do so as the season progresses. I met the gentlemen at Inver Park before they departed and they couldn’t have been happier or more complimentary, unfortunately I met a few of them after the game and they were less so about some of our fans during the game.
I’m not asking us to be choirboys, but let’s look out for own. Before speaking, shouting or getting embroiled, ask yourself would you speak in front of your own kids or to your mothers or grand parents in this way?
Our older supporters have earned our respects, let’s pay it.
Let’s regroup, channel all our thoughts and energies positively and see where it takes us. You’ve been brilliant up to now, ensure you are back to being that twelfth man again against the Belfast ‘Big Two’.
Regards
Gareth
#BeTheDifference
