I started writing this on the Supporters’ Club coach on the way home from our entertaining 3-3 draw at Sutton Coldfield, with supporters and players enjoying a few drinks and some karaoke together after another enjoyable day following Grantham Town. For me, that is what a football club is all about: togetherness, friendships, shared experiences and, most importantly, having fun.

Fans’ Forum
Once again, Mitch and the team fought right to the end. We came back to equalise at 3-3 and could even have nicked it at the death but for a great save from their goalkeeper. That fighting spirit was one of the subjects that came up at our Fans’ Forum with Mitch last Thursday. Mitch and Louis have put together a group of players who genuinely fight for each other and never know when they are beaten.

We are fortunate to have a manager like Mitch. He is straightforward and honest in his communication, always happy to explain his thinking, answer questions and engage with supporters. Working alongside Louis, they have created a really good mentality in the dressing room, and you can see that togetherness on the pitch.

It was great to see supporters at the Fans’ Forum. These evenings are a really good opportunity to hear directly from the manager, get an insight into what is happening behind the scenes and ask questions about the team and the direction we are heading, all in a relaxed and enjoyable environment. We want Grantham Town to be an open and accessible football club, and events like this are an important part of that.

Our Vision
Our vision at Grantham Town remains clear: to have 1,000 people playing football under the Grantham Town banner. That means creating pathways and opportunities for everyone - boys and girls, men and women - from our youngest age groups right through to senior football. Ultimately, we want the heart of our men’s and women’s first teams to be made up of local players. When people come to watch the Gingerbreads on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, we want them to see players who have grown up in our community and progressed through the Grantham Town pathway.

Alongside that, we want to continue developing Walking Football, Grantham Unity and disability and inclusive football. Walking Football is a great example of the opportunity ahead of us. We currently have around 20 players involved at Grantham, while Stamford have around 180. That shows the potential. We want to develop different age groups and sessions and give many more people the opportunity to keep playing football as they get older.

Central to achieving all of this is our ambition to have our own 3G community pitch. Quite simply, it will be extremely difficult for us to fulfil our ambitions without one. A 3G facility would allow us to provide considerably more football, create a genuine home for our expanding pathway and community programmes, and give us the capacity to reach hundreds more people every week.

The Lease
The lease is continuing to progress and we are now in the latter stages. It has been more complex than we first anticipated, but it is important that we get the foundations right for the club’s long-term future.

The agreement needs to put Grantham Town in the strongest possible position to work with SKDC and other partners, attract investment into The Meres and access grants from the Football Foundation and other funding bodies. As part of that work, we have also reviewed our company structure to ensure we are properly set up for the widest possible range of funding opportunities.

We do not want to rush into an agreement that could unintentionally restrict future investment in facilities and equipment. Taking a little more time now should give the club a much stronger platform for the years ahead.

Working With Local Businesses
When I took over as Chairman, my wife Tomoko told me an inspirational story about Albirex Niigata in Japan (a city of around 750,000 people on Japan’s west coast, famous for its rice and sake) and one of the driving forces behind the club, her former boss Hiromu Ikeda. Tomoko worked for Mr Ikeda, so she had a lot of inside knowledge about how they went about building the club and its relationship with the local community. One part of their philosophy particularly stuck with me.

Albirex didn’t simply rely on one huge company bankrolling everything. Instead, they worked incredibly hard to build support throughout their community, encouraging individuals and local businesses to make relatively modest contributions and become part of the journey. Mr Ikeda would personally go around the local business community encouraging companies to get involved. The principle was simple: even if a company could only contribute the equivalent of around £100 a year, it was still contributing and becoming part of the club. Many businesses obviously did considerably more, but think about the maths.

If hundreds, or eventually thousands, of businesses are each contributing something, those relatively small amounts collectively become very significant. More importantly, you build a network of people and businesses who feel connected to the football club. Over time, Albirex grew from a relatively small club into one attracting tens of thousands of supporters and competing at the highest level of Japanese football.

I’m not suggesting we need a 25,000-seat stadium at The Meres just yet, but you get the point! There is something in that philosophy that I believe can work for Grantham Town.

Grantham is obviously smaller than Niigata and we do not have thousands of companies on our doorstep. What we can do, over time, is build relationships with as many local businesses as possible and encourage everyone to contribute something - whether that is sponsorship, equipment, expertise, time, introductions or simply encouraging their staff and families to come along to The Meres. We have considerably fewer resources and we are all volunteers, so it will take time. But if you run or work for a local business and would like to get involved with Grantham Town in any way, please get in touch.

Community Days at The Meres
Another important part of our plans is making our home games an opportunity to welcome different sections of the Grantham community to The Meres. Last season we made great progress visiting local primary schools, delivering fun presentations and giving away family tickets so children and their families could experience a game at The Meres. The idea was simple: come along, enjoy the matchday experience, spend an afternoon at your local football club and hopefully come back.

It was particularly pleasing to see that happen, with many of those families returning for other games later in the season. I’m also told by the Supporters’ Club that we had a very good year selling scarves and caps - so somebody must have enjoyed themselves! We want to build on that this year. We are continuing our school visits and are also talking to some of the larger employers in Grantham about inviting their staff and families to games during October and beyond.

There is no catch. Come to The Meres, have a good time, enjoy the football and hopefully you will want to come back again. There are plenty of people who are new to Grantham and probably plenty who have lived here for years but don’t really know what happens at The Meres. We want to change that. We want every part of our community to feel that Grantham Town is their football club. It takes time, but we will get there.

Disability & Unity Community Day
Our next Community Day is particularly special and something very close to my heart. Saturday 26 September is our Disability & Unity Community Day. Before the first-team game against Shepshed Dynamo, Grantham Unity will play Stamford Unity on the main pitch at 1:15pm.

Over the last few months we have been working with Day Break at the college through our Friday sessions, while our Grantham Unity sessions take place every Sunday morning from 10am-11am. Like any new initiative, these things take time to grow, but we are seeing new faces coming along and numbers gradually increasing.

Saturday will be Grantham Unity’s first friendly match and a fantastic opportunity for the players to pull on a Grantham Town shirt and experience playing on the first-team pitch with supporters there encouraging them. Unity is about enjoyment, confidence, friendship and belonging. It isn’t about how good you are at football. It is about making sure there is a place at Grantham Town for everyone.

I would love to see plenty of supporters arrive early on Saturday and give both teams a brilliant reception. We have further Community Days planned, including our Blue Light Day and Army Appreciation Day in November. Change takes time, particularly when so much of what we do is driven by volunteers. The goal is to keep building steadily on what we achieved last season and gradually work our way around every part of the Grantham community.

Fundraising
Community involvement isn’t only about football. Last season we raised £5,000 through our sleep-out for a local homelessness charity, something everyone involved should be incredibly proud of.

I’ll shortly be sitting down with Rob at The Beehive to start planning our next fundraising event for the New Year. We want Grantham Town to be a football club that contributes to the town around us, not simply one that asks the town to support us.

Martin O’Neill
I’m also still in contact with Martin O’Neill. Martin has promised that he will come and visit us before the end of December. I know plenty of supporters have been asking me about it, so all I can say for now is... watch this space!

A Big Shout-Out to Our Under-18s
On the football side, a huge congratulations to Richard, his coaches and our Under-18s following their excellent FA Youth Cup victory away at Carlton Town last week. After a terrific 0-0 draw, the lads held their nerve to win 4-2 on penalties and continue their FA Youth Cup adventure. That followed their excellent 2-0 victory over Blackstones at The Meres in the previous round.

It is exactly why developing our pathway is so important. We want talented young local players to see a route through Grantham Town and ultimately aspire to pull on the first-team shirt. Congratulations to everyone involved and good luck in the next round. Their next FA Youth Cup game is away to Harborough Town. Good luck to Richard, his coaches and all the lads, hopefully the cup adventure continues!

And Finally, Thank You
I want to finish with probably the most important part of this update. A huge thank you to everyone who gives their time to Grantham Town Football Club.

Before becoming Chairman, I was like some supporters. I turned up, watched the game and went home. I genuinely had no idea how many people were working behind the scenes to make a football club function. There are people giving up evenings, weekends and countless hours of their free time while balancing jobs and family life.

Most of them receive very little recognition for it. They don’t do it for praise or credit and, unfortunately, sometimes they receive criticism from people who perhaps don’t realise just how much work goes on behind the scenes. Whether you are involved with the first team, reserves, youth, women’s football, Scholars, Unity, Walking Football, catering, the Supporters’ Club, matchdays, administration, pitch maintenance, media, coaching, the Players Fund or any of the dozens of other jobs that need doing - thank you.

You all know who you are. There is a huge amount happening at Grantham Town.

We won’t get everything right overnight. We will make mistakes along the way. But we will keep moving forward, keep opening the club up to more people and, most importantly, keep trying to make Grantham Town a football club that our whole community can be proud to call its own.

On behalf of myself and the Board, thank you for everything you do. Up the Gingerbreads.

Nick Johnston
Chairman
Grantham Town Football Club