Some Thank Yous
As the season draws to a conclusion, it’s time to recognise and thank all the individuals at the club who work hard to care for TMUFC Football at Imperial Fields.
Firstly I would like to thank all the players from all our teams for their work throughout the season. All have been a credit to the club with their efforts and sportsmanship. The First Team will be looking to build upon the firm foundations it now has, whilst the U23s are (at the time of writing) still challenging for the league title and have reached a League Cup semi-final. The club runs a number of Academy and U18 teams; already winning the Tandridge League Shield and appearing in a Surrey County Cup Final.
The teams would be nothing without the dedicated support of their coaches, management and support staff. For the First Team, thanks to Jamie, Penny, Miguel, Lewis, Dale, James, Sean, Kenny & Harry. For the younger age groups thanks to Ashley, Dan, Tony and Warren plus a whole host of others. We’ve seen a fair number of their players from our development teams acquit themselves well in the first team this season, continuing the TMUFC production line which this season has seen Ra’ess Bangura-Williams establish himself in the Millwall team and become an Under 20 England International.
Thank you to our Football Chairman John O’Connor for his support and advice during the season.
It’s fair to say that football at Imperial Fields and the whole matchday experience would be much poorer without the amazing group of fans and volunteers that we have. Thanks to Will and Doug who do the turnstiles, Stewart who does 50/50 and Golden Goal, Andy Harup who sells programmes and helps with the player and officials meet and greeting. Also, thanks to Phil Steventon in the shop, and Joel, our very entertaining matchday announcer. Thanks to Kirstie for providing great food on matchdays, and for Luke running the bottle bar. Thanks also to Lyn and her team of stewards who ensure everybody’s safety on matchdays.
I’d like to particularly thank Ed Parlett for his amazing and dedicated work as programme editor, surely one of the best programmes in non-league football and the result of many hours of painstaking toil.
Thank you to Sam Conquest and Tim Marcus for their photography work home and away, covering games at all levels of the club. I’m sure everybody appreciates seeing their fantastic coverage of games. Thanks also to Roy Sisley who does all the matchday secretary work for the first team, more or less every game both home and away.
Much also goes on behind the scenes, generally unseen, during the week. In particular, the hard work of Phil Nightingale, Peter Donoghue and Graham Newsom (aka the Tuesday Crew) who spend many days at the club undertaking groundworks, doing maintenance and improvements. This is truly vital work.
Thanks to Steve Paine who oversees the Members Club finances which pay for a lot of the extras supporting the matchday experience and also contributing additional funding to the first team.
Also generally unseen is the hospitality in the boardroom. Keith Kelly is a fantastic host and boardroom manager, ably assisted by Ian Bullock, Jenny Thompson, John Dellafera and Andrew Woolley. Thanks to Trish Garrard for the homemade cakes. At our club we get a lot of special guests and visitors, and universally they go away with a great impression.
I would also like to thank all the TMSL staff under Jackie’s leadership – including Emily, Luke and Daria. They all work long hours and deal with a huge number of issues with good humour.
Thank you to our club owner Steve Adkins for his continued investment and support for the club.
I would also like to give thanks to all the supporters. The club is so fortunate to have a truly amazing group of supporters who travel in large numbers and give the club fantastic support. Many have been incredibly generous providing sponsorship and spending hard-earned money at the club.
Last, but not least, a special thank you for the work Busy does. We all appreciate everything you do for the club both football-wise and more generally working at Imperial Fields.
Stephen Reynolds
TMUFC Members Club