On Air Now Dave Sweetmore 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Now Playing Becky Hill x Lewis Thompson Side Effects

Glossop North End Secretary Says The Club Is 'Alive And Kicking'

Glossop North End secretary Dan Bates has thanked the club's sponsors, partners and volunteers for their efforts and loyalty in the face of testing times during Covid-19.

Despite the turmoil caused by the pandemic, in which two seasons were null and voided, Bates says the club is alive and kicking financially - thanks in no small part to Government support.

The Hillmen's AGM took place last night. Bates provided the following details in a statement uploaded to the club's website:

"The accounts for the year ending 31st May 2021 were overseen as distributed to shareholders with the invites. They show a small profit in the last trading year, partly caused by the timing of government backed coronavirus business interruption funding being received, this resulted in a small corporation tax bill to HMRC for the 2020/2021 year. The appointment of Bennett Virby Ltd as the companies financial auditors was approved.

Football Secretary, Dan Bates then provided the below statement:
After another extraordinary year blighted throughout by the Covid-19 Global Pandemic, I am pleased to be able to say we are still very much alive and kicking as a club. Given the circumstances this is a significant achievement, although to be clear, it could not have been accomplished without Government support and the amazing backing the Club has received from Sponsors, Commercial Partners and most importantly, Supporters.

Whilst we faced the unprecedented prospect of an entire season either behind closed doors or not at all, and the costs associated with that, our Conference & Events facilities and Commercial activities remained closed, prohibited from opening, for long periods during the year and in some cases, the whole financial year.

As a result, in order to sustain the business, the Club had to take out a government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption funding. The effects of the Pandemic will be felt for many years to come. But Government support alone would not have seen us through. Many of our Sponsors and Commercial Partners paid for their Sponsorship Rights for the season even though the Club was unable to deliver due to nationwide restrictions. Many effectively ‘donated’ their investment in the Club whilst others were happy to carry over their Rights into future years. We are forever grateful to you all. This unequivocally confirmed my belief that Glossop North End has the best supporters in the NPL and we cannot thank you enough. The resounding support was truly humbling and it is this, above all other things, that makes me proud to be football secretary of the Club we all love.

On the pitch, unfortunately it was a tough couple of seasons, in the south east division, where we looked set to record our biggest operational loss for a long time up until the pandemic and subsequent curtailment of the 2019/2020 season. With GNE in 14th place with 8 wins from 30 games, and 13 defeats, there were high moments, including the win on the road at Ilkeston.

Another season in the south east was set upon us for the short lived 2020/2021 season, with just 9 games played, yielding just 2 wins and GNE placed in 16th position at the time of the curtailment. We then radically pushed back on the NPL’s attempts to restart the season in December, whilst local tiered restrictions allowed for absolutely nothing in terms of our all important secondary matchday income. With no secondary matchday income apart from limited gate receipts, predictions suggest the club would suffer heavy weekly operating losses even in a best case scenario under these conditions. GNE did not see how it should be expected to finance this loss week in - week out for an indefinite amount of time whilst the threat of further lockdown's after Christmas was still present, and cases continued to rise in Derbyshire & the High Peak.

More recently, the addition of the new 3rd division at step 4 of the national league system pyramid enabled GNE to move back into the NPL west division, back amongst where we should be. Preparations for the new season were not helped by the turbulence caused by the departure of Manager Pete Band to Macclesfield FC. But we now look to the future with a new Football Department structure overseen and fronted by new Head Coach Stuart Mellish. It is early days but I am excited by the prospect and I am sure this new-look set up will be successful given time.

Stuart has spent a lot of time putting a new squad together in a continuous improvement. Ideally, we would have had the majority of the recruitment done earlier in the summer but that was always going to be a challenge with the change in management team. Ideally, we wanted to undertake the majority of the recruitment work earlier so that Stuart and his coaching team have more time to instil their principles of play and have new players integrated into the squad before the heavy match schedule starts, and this will much more in place for the new season this summer. All of the same principles apply in terms of seeking to add value to the squad, identifying players who fit with our philosophy and bring a positive influence to the dressing room, while also ensuring we remain committed to keeping pathways open for our younger talent to emerge.

I’m sure people can see the energy that we now have in the dressing room, and the style of football that is getting played out there. We get the ball forward quickly and play on the front foot wherever possible. Recruitment is always ongoing and we are already looking into next season with Stuart to ensure he and the management team can be supported for next year. I hope to announce a pre-season schedule at the end of this season, and there’s plenty of other exciting news coming up over the summer.

This year we have doubled our commitment to the Glossop North End juniors set up by hosting not only the U21’s but the U18’s here at the Amdec Forklift Stadium, the U18’s jumping up into the north west youth alliance, a much more high standard than they have played at for a long time. They’ve also been involved in the FA youth cup this year, we remain committed to helping out with matchday promotions and trying to give the 18’s and 21’s as much coverage as we can to ensure they feel a part of what we’re doing. 

In the professional game, Industry data suggest a player’s transfer value is twice as high at age 20 than it is at 25, reducing by 13% each season. Its understandably on a smaller scale here in non-league, however there’s still a responsibility for us to ensure our homegrown talent can be of the necessary standard to make a positive impact in the first team environment by age 20 if we are to maximise our opportunity to realise that value for our most promising talents. That being said, the average age of our most recent squad for the latest league game at 1874 Northwich was just 22 years 8 months.

My thanks also go out to my fellow Directors who supported the Club through their expertise throughout the year. A very special mention also to the volunteers for sticking by the Club and working incredibly hard to ensure we prevailed when faced with incredible logistical and personal challenges during these difficult and unprecedented times.

Finally, and most importantly, on behalf of everyone at Glossop North End. I would like to say a huge thank you to ALL Supporters who continued to back the Club at a time when many have faced their own personal struggles throughout this horrific Pandemic. It has been another tough time, both on and off the pitch, but I would like to assure you all we continue to work extremely hard to give you a team and Club to be proud of.

 

 

 

More from Sport

Weather

  • Thu

    9°C

  • Fri

    12°C

  • Sat

    13°C

  • Sun

    14°C

  • Mon

    11°C