News From The Management
From The Management
With all the latest news and updates from the entire Aylesbury United management team, as well as periodic reports from the club captain, this is the best place to keep in touch with the goings on at the club.
We also welcome any questions from supporters. If you have something you wish to put to management team then please e-mail info@aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk.
2009
The football season is finally now underway with pre-season having commenced and going well. This is my first opportunity to introduce myself and to inform our fans of the changes made during the summer months and to hopefully clarify to all our way forward.
May I first start by saying I am delighted and honoured to be the new Aylesbury United Manager. The club has a huge history and from my time as a player I remember AUFC as a big club with great players and at one point probably the best pitch/ground for miles around. But more than this I remember the fans who were many in numbers, loud, passionate and fully behind their club.
The club today finds itself probably at the lowest point of its esteemed history. This is what it is, and now is the time for positivity and to look forward not behind us. The committee are doing a sterling job and should be applauded for striving to keep this once huge non league club in existence and moving forward. Myself and our staff look forward to working closely with the committee and our new secretary Steve Baker to keep the momentum going and to build for the future.
Of course with our lack of finance the going is tough and will continue to be so but this must be used as an inspiration and not as an excuse. This is our aim for this and hopefully the next few seasons ahead.
I am joined at the club by our new Assistant Manager, Byron Walton, whom I have known since U14 football many, many years ago. Christian Williams will join us soon once he completes his prior commitments and will be our First Team Coach alongside Dave Butler. Steve Jarratt joins as our Physio, whom I have known for more than 20 years all of which time he has been a fully qualified Physio and is highly skilled.
We all have one intention, to maintain our status, to push as high as is practically possible and to rebuild our club and guarantee that our players take pride in playing for the green and white of The Ducks.
All of last season’s squad have been contacted and invited back this season. The majority will not be returning for reasons relating to last season and I for one refuse to look back and wish them well in their football careers wherever they end up playing. They of course all remain welcome at any stage.
Training is at RAF Naphill for pre-season and then reverts to RAF Halton in the winter months. Our squad is taking shape and I will keep you updated as to new arrivals in the next week or so but things are looking good, training has been bright with good attendance as we begin the rebuild. Of course we will have players stepping up from the level below as well as players who have played at our level and above so I have no doubts at our ability to compete. To rebuild a side gradually is tough let alone when one is starting from scratch but with the backing of our fans and our Committee I believe pride will be restored in being a member of Aylesbury United.
This season we are joined in the division by the likes of Slough Town, Beaconsfield Sycob and Burnham FC which alongside the likes of Chesham Utd, Hitchin, Marlow FC, Barton and of course our landlords Leighton Town ensures we have many local derbies to play which I know is relished by players and supporters alike.
I look forward to meeting with as many of you as I can , please feel free to approach either myself or any member of our staff/squad at anytime we will be delighted to talk to you.
Martin
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With the season now ended I would like to give you my assessment and thoughts for the season. I think we are all a little disappointed how our season ended considering the promise we have showed in individual matches and at various points of the season. I have constantly said we are not far away from being a very good side and that has been proven when we have faced the bigger teams in the league, where we have come unstuck is failing to learn how to win against the less fancied sides in the division.
The truth is though we have been ravished by injuries to key players throughout the season and I think any team would have been tested especially when we have been unable to bring in any replacements so it is no surprise to see the top 5 as the teams who reportedly have the biggest budget.
Although we fell short of what we all hoped for I believe we have given our loyal fans some great memories this season the win at Bath being one of the great days out with the journey home being one of the best coach journeys I have ever had. I wish we could have been able to field our strongest side more often and then seen how far we could progress.
We have had some upset with Tommo leaving and for the record everyone should know that Tommo worked tirelessly for Aylesbury United and some of the stick he got from various people was a little unfair. For me I am very proud to have led the team from then with great assistance from Mark, Trevor and John all of them great football people. The players have all been committed and enthusiastic throughout and they have always worked very hard and as I have said before our team spirit is second to none.
As for the future for any team without a home ground it remains uncertain but I am sure with the continued drive and determination of all the good people involved with the club solutions will be found. I would like to thank all of our fans who have been so supportive of myself and the team throughout the season you are what keeps this great club alive.
Enjoy the summer break
With my very best wishes
Mark
2009
I would like to give everyone an honest assessment of the last couple of weeks. There is no doubt in football that just when you think great progress is on the horizon things can go horribly wrong very quickly, and we have had arguably our worst two weeks of the season.
After our three wins early this month there was definitely a belief that we could nail the last playoff place. I had improved the squad and we now had healthy competition in all places.
Now after our Chasetown defeat we are left with needing virtually to win all our games and hope for a miracle, as well as carrying injuries throughout the team.
The margin between winning and losing football games is very thin and the two games that have been our undoing was not Chasetown, it was the home games to Bedworth and Bury which we believed we could get a result in.
In the last two games fortune has certainly not smiled on us. Although we weren’t at our best I am convinced that in the first half of the Bury game if Sid’s header goes in instead of rebounding off the inside of the post we would have gone on and got the result we needed.
Our injury problems have come back to haunt us. Ben Stevens is almost certainly out for the season, and the others I will give an update on the website once I know. I couldn’t fault our work rate and effort against Chasetown; it’s a difficult place to go and performance wise I thought we stood up to them and definitely deserved something from the game.
I am not going to use the excuse that decisions that have gone against us are the reason for our recent poor results, but I do feel we have been on the wrong end of some poor refereeing. I agree with the sentiment that it’s a difficult job but what I have seen in our last two games has been complete incompetence.
In truth we have to look at ourselves, we haven’t been good enough when it counted, too many of our players have chosen the wrong time of the season to have poor form; you can sometimes handle 1 or 2 but not 5 or 6.
The areas that have cost us dearly are the consistent waste of good chances and sloppiness in the final third, individual errors and our old nemesis of defending set pieces. In fact I can’t think of many recent goals we have conceded from open play. The problem is if we continually give away silly free kicks in dangerous positions we are simply rolling the dice because every team in this league will ask questions of your defence, it’s a massive part of the game and something we need to improve on if we want to progress.
We have an honest talented bunch of young players we just need to get them a bit tougher mentally to move on to the next level. I am determined that we apply ourselves correctly for the remaining games of the season and finish strongly because as we have seen recently to our detriment in football anything can happen and things can turn around very quickly.
As always thank you for the continued support.
Mark Eaton
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