Avro appeal for creative minds to design new kit in NHS rainbow colours

Avro Football Club is planning for next season - and you can have a say in how their away strip is designed.

Following the selfless and inspirational work carried out by NHS staff during the coronavirus outbreak, the club is giving creative minds the chance to design next season’s away kit in NHS rainbow colours.

It’s one of many ideas launched by the club in recent weeks to honour our heroes, with free season tickets being given out to frontline workers in Oldham and North Manchester.

The online kit builder, EV2 Sports Wear, is easy to use and can be found here: https://www.ev2sportswear.com/kitbuilder/#/

The winning kit will be chosen by the club's committee. 

While it's still unclear as to when next season will begin, Avro are making a number of plans and changes in the event that the campaign starts during its intended month of August.

Paul Armstrong, who forms part of the management team, has taken on a new role and will now help to promote the club, manage finances, and continue with the development of the ground.  

The former FC United player, who was training for the Manchester Marathon to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support before its postponement, said he's looking forward to helping the club progress. "Obviously the club's been close to me since I was a kid as Oldham's main base was the Lancaster club, so I used to train there a lot.

"I also coached a very successful kids team with chairman Rob Fuller and Dave Moxon. Rob has known me since I was in nappies as my brother was his best friend, so we grew up and he's like another brother to me.

"We have done fantastic both on and off the field in a very short space of time, getting promotion last season was remarkable considering the budget and other clubs have been stagnant in that division for years. Our aim is to keep building the club on and off the pitch, trying to get the local community on board with us in the process."

Avro's Vestacare Stadium has become something of a hub for the community, with Oldham Rugby League Club using the venue as its training base whilst they play home fixtures at Stalybridge Celtic's Bower Fold.

And the ground is currently having something of a makeover, with a new sheltered area being constructed behind one of the goals, along with a new hospitality suite.

The improvements are being made to make the club more professional and match their ambitions of moving up the pyramid. "We have very big plans for the ground" said Paul. "It was something myself, Rob and Moxey talked about since we were promoted. We need to get more bums on seats and keep progressing the club.

"Between us we have a lot of contacts of friends who own businesses and they have helped us immensely to achieve a dream Rob had many years ago of being a non-league club.

"We are very ambitious though, as well as the management who will be bringing in a coach in due course. One of the main reasons I'll be helping the chairman and secretary is to become more professional. At the moment Rob and Dave basically run the full club. 17 teams is a lot of hard work, so I will be taking some workload off them.

"When your'e on the management team you have to be there no matter what, so holidays are hard to come by with the family. My wife is a teacher so we are ruled to school holidays as well."

Avro's season was ended prematurely in March due to the coronavirus outbreak. The North West Counties Football League decided to cancel the season and expunge results in the process, meaning clubs who were on the brink of promotion, such as Vauxhall Motors in the South Division, who led the table by 16 points, will have to do it all again next season.

Questioned on the decision - which hasn't affected Avro in the Premier Division due to their 12 place standing - Paul said: "I think we have to first and foremost think of the lives that are sadly being taken and pray that this ends as soon as possible.

"I thought the league may have let the promoted sides go up as there were going to be new editions to the leagues. A lot of hard work has gone in from every team and it’s a great shame. I’m sure the likes of Vauxhall and 1874 Northwich will be in the mix next season."