Like waiting for Christmas Day, the excitement and anticipation of the start of the new football season is at last over and we all have great hope that Daryl’s squad will get us the promotion that we all crave. The start of the season also brings some frustrations outlined in Peter Varney’s article that we will have to wait for the construction of the new Stonebridge Road signature stand.

This means that our plans for what we can offer our Community partners in terms of facilities and other opportunities will also be delayed.

However, this will not stop the club from reaching out to the Community in as many ways as we can and have done so to date. Over the summer Academy players Ollie Boulding, Mitch Liddle, Joe Denny and Liam Rosenfield represented EUFC at the Big Local Summer Celebration at Lawn Primary School, Northfleet, on Saturday 18th July and ran the ever popular “beat the goalie” stand (pictured below).

More than 300 local people attended the Big Local Summer Celebration with summer fete favourites such as a coconut shy and hook-the-duck stalls as well as a barbeque and live music from the Knights Unplugged (favourites here from last year’s Community Day) and the Beat Club. The Academy lads handed out 15 Mitsubishi/EUFC footballs as prizes at their stall.

I have been talking to Gravesham Borough Council on a potentially big project to improve the look of the routes into Gravesend and I hope to be able to pull together a Community
Arts project (naturally with a football theme), once we can get buy-in from Kent County Council.

As well as developing some new ideas, including trying to secure a permanent Football in the Community Officer for the club, we will be assisting with other projects and Community events as in previous years such as the Gravesham Borough Mayor’s Boundary walk on Saturday 3rd October and the Stoptober 28-day stop smoking campaign.

Please contact me or Dave Archer at the club office with any Community Projects you are involved in and think that EUFC can get involved in.

Let’s make the 2015/16 season one to remember for all the right reasons and get behind Daryl and the lads.