Welcome to the Abbey
Steve Greenall - Scarborough, Saturday 5th September 1998
I think there was a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday, with a solid win and three points in the bag. It was obvious from speaking to the players over the last week or so that they really felt that they had let themselves down. But there is definitely a growing spirit in the squad - one which even outsiders have detected, and mentioned. We recently purchased a new piece of equipment for the physio room, and the salesman commented that he had recently visited 27 clubs, in the course of his work, and had not come across a better dressing room spirit than the one he sensed here. That is encouraging. He could have gone away without saying a word, but took the trouble to make a point of telling us what he felt. That is the kind of spirit which gets you through the tough times, and in Division Three, times can be tough.
Our opponents last Tuesday, Chester City, are the latest club to suffer financial worries, with a simple illustration of their plight being the fact that manager Kevin Ratcliffe had to draw £5,000 of his own money to pay a water bill. The players were only able to travel to Southend last weekend courtesy of a whip round amongst supporters. Some would say, "there by the grace of God" and they'd be right. There have been times in the last six years where we too have stared into the financial abyss, only for a transfer or a sell-on to bail us out. Truthfully, in the last 15 months, this club has had an easier time, because of our undoubted success in the transfer market. Longer term, we must continue to produce the players we can trade on in the market. Whilst from time to time, fans get very emotionally charged when a transfer is made (remember when Steve Claridge went to Birmingham), it must be remembered that the players too want to play at the highest level. In that respect, the player gets his wish, the buying club (hopefully) gets a player who will enhance their squad, and the selling club get compensation, which in our case has meant survival. The Sport First newspaper, published each Sunday, ran a very good feature on the situation at Chester on August 23rd. Whilst I have a lot of sympathy for everyone at Chester I'm sure it came ... well, I KNOW it came as a great shock to many fans to hear how serious the situation was. Equally, I'm sure you, the fans, must have grown tired at times of hearing about Cambridge United's situation, but at least you are hearing something ... which is more than can be said for many other clubs. Speaking of Sport First, we took delivery of a bundle of copies of last week's issue, for promotional purposes. In my opinion, this paper is a must for sports fans in general, and football fans in particular. The statistics pages are very well put together, and if you would like to see a copy, they are available from the ticket office or the shop. A week before we play Leyton Orient, we are still no nearer to resolving the situation regarding Billy Beall. Briefly, on that one, all I can say is a comeback's not on the current agenda. Finally, as the games against Sheffield Wednesday draw closer, can I alert you to the ticketing details which appear on page 37 of the programme? STEVE GREENALL |