The Club's main priority is keeping all visitors to APEC Taxis Stadium safe. Further to our last statement on Monday 31st January, the Board have been reviewing our safety and security protocols at the Club. An action plan has been devised to address the issues and here are the actions we will be taking ahead of our match vs Marine tonight:

Incident in the clubhouse after the match against Workington - Following a review of the CCTV, a supporter has been banned for the remainder of this season. We will also be issuing final warnings to anyone else who was actively involved in the incident.

Players Tunnel – The tunnel area will be made more secure.

Supporters throwing missiles onto the pitch - Stewards will be better positioned to identify offenders. Anybody identified throwing missiles will be banned from the ground indefinitely. The Club could also face financial sanctions as a result.

Supporters gathering outside the ground after the game – At the end of each game, we will ask stewards to stand outside the main gates. Cheshire Police have also been made aware of the situation.

The club will shortly be carrying out a full security review, with an external partner, for the APEC Taxis Stadium. Our attendances have increased much more than anyone at the club could have imagined, and we need to ensure that we have the correct resources and processes in place to keep everyone safe.

Longer term we will also be looking at how we can improve facilities at the bottom end of the ground to provide food and drink outlets (we have provided this on a temporary basis at recent matches) alongside some other measures to manage bigger crowds. Please look out for further communication over the next few months.

Thank you for your continued support and for reading this statement.

Trust Board

Runcorn Linnets FC

Men's Team

The lads fought hard against top of the table Workington but a late goal from Kain Dean wasn't enough to prevent us from slipping to a 2-1 defeat. We are still in the play off places and Calum and his team are working wonders to keep us in there, we are entering a defining part of the season and the team will need your support more than ever.

Next, we travel to Trafford which has always been a tough place for us to play but has also always been a good surface to play on, so it should be an interesting game.

We then host Marine on Tuesday in what is sure to be a thrilling encounter, we were very unlucky to lose 3-1 at Marine after dominating the first half and if we put in a similar performance then we can win the game.

Linnets Ladies

The Ladies continued their improved form with a great 5-1 win over West Kirby Ladies at the APEC on Sunday. That's now back-to-back wins and three games unbeaten for the Linnets and it's a testament to the hard work of Toddy and his team that they have been able to turn their season round so dramatically. We now sit 7th in the North West Women's Regional League Division One South.

Next up for the Ladies is a trip to the Tameside Stadium to play Curzon Ashton Women on Sunday 6th February at 2pm.

Development Team

New manager Dean Vian continued the great start to his rein with a 2-0 away win over AFC Knowsley U21s. The lads now sit 5th in North West Under 21 Development League Premier Division.

Next up for the lads is yet another away game against Chorley FC U21 on Sunday 6th February at 4.30pm.

ESPFA Academy

Our ESPFA Academy side had a cup game at the APEC Taxis Stadium on Thursday against Skelmersdale United and it was another comprehensive win for the lads this time by seven goals to one. This continues their 100% start to the season, and I don't want to jinx anything, but I really can't see them losing.

Their next match is at the APEC Taxis Stadium against Belper Town on Thursday 10th February at 12pm.

Crowd Trouble

We have doubled our average attendances this season and the attendance of 963 against Workington broke our attendance record for a league game. We are delighted in the increase in attendances, and I feel that the majority of our new fans have embraced the ethos of Runcorn Linnets. Whilst working hard on increasing attendances, we have also worked hard on continuing our tradition of being a community and family club. Unfortunately, a minority of those people attending our games are completely undermining that with unacceptable behaviour.

There seems to be a problem across all of football at the moment with spectators misbehaving and we are not immune to that. We welcome all new fans to the APEC but throwing anything onto the pitch and aggressive behaviour towards opposition players is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. Our matchday staff are all volunteers and they should not have to deal with this kind of behaviour.

The board have been discussing the issues since the Workington game and we will do everything in our power to resolve these issues. However, the best way to resolve these issues is for them to stop happening, so I'm appealing to anyone involved in any of the trouble we have had this season, please stop! It's not fair on our matchday volunteers, officials and all the other hundreds of fans who just want to watch a good game of football.

Thank you for reading.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

Message from the Board

As mentioned in our recent statements, our support, home and away has been incredible this season, 963 on Saturday, crowds that before this season we could only dream of for a league game in January. The Club's main priority is to ensure the safety of everyone attending the APEC Taxis Stadium.

We have been made aware of several unsavoury incidents / issues which occurred during and after the match on Saturday. Runcorn Linnets FC do not condone any behaviour of this kind and anyone who is caught doing so will be banned from the APEC Taxis Stadium indefinitely. Following the incidents on Saturday, the Club is reviewing all safety and security protocols to ensure that incidents like this do not happen and where they do, that the perpetrators are dealt with accordingly.

Thankyou for reading this statement and for your continued support.

Men's Team

The lads bounced back from a disappointing defeat against City of Liverpool with a dominant display away at Ramsbottom. After taking an early lead through Ryan Brooke, we were pegged back 10 minutes later, and the teams went into the break deadlocked. We dominated the second half but just couldn't quite make the breakthrough until Joe Lynch popped up in the box to slide the ball past the Rammy keeper and Iwan Murray sealed the win in stoppage time. The lads showed a lot of character to keep going until the very end to grab a deserved win.

We then travelled to Colne on Tuesday in the bitter cold and despite a well worked equaliser from Lloyd Marsh-Hughes on the stroke of half time and another dominant second half performance we couldn't turn the draw into a win.

Next up is a huge game at the APEC Taxis Stadium against table toppers Workington Town. Workington were top of the league when we beat them at their own ground back in October, so there is no reason why we can't do it again.

Linnets Ladies

I was at the APEC on Sunday to watch the Ladies take on Wythenshawe AFC Women. The Ladies put in a great performance and showed a lot of character to get a 2-0 win. I know how hard Toddy and the girls have been working on the training pitch and it's great to see them getting the results their hard work deserves.

They have another home game at the APEC Taxis Stadium on Sunday 30th January against West Kirby Ladies at 2pm. There were quite a few fans in attendance last week and it would be great to see another great crowd on Sunday.

Development Team

New Development Team Manager Dean Vian managed his first game in sole charge on Sunday away at Stalybridge Celtic FC U21s and they came away with an excellent 4-3 win They have another away game against AFC Knowlsey U21s at the Lord Derby Memorial Playing Fields on Sunday 30th January at 2pm.

Clarification

In last week's update whilst discussing our new board appointments I stated that I felt that this was the strongest board in the club's history. Whilst I stand by that assertion, I want to make it clear that it wasn't intended as a criticism of any previous boards or board members, it was my personal opinion based on the skills of the individuals we currently have on the board. Every board member has contributed to where the club is today, and I would never undervalue or underestimate the contributions of any past board members.

Thank you for reading.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

A year of updates

With this being update number 52, that makes a whole year of Chairman's Updates. It's been a very busy year, we've made some great progress and made some mistakes, I feel we have learned lessons from all our mistakes and issues and the club is in a much better place now. We won't be resting on our laurels though and we will be doing everything we can to make the club even better.

Men's Team

It was a disappointing defeat against City of Liverpool in Ellesmere Port, the lads gave it their all, but it just wasn't to be. We are still in the play off places and the dynamic at the top of the table has changed again with Workington taking over from Marine at the summit.

We now have two very tough away games coming up. First up is Ramsbottom on Saturday which is always a tough place to go, followed by our rearranged fixture at Colne on the Tuesday. They are both going to be real tests with wins cementing our place in the play offs and I'm sure the lads will be right up for it.

Development Team

New manager Dean Vian took charge of his first game along with Gibbo on Sunday and it was a tough game to start with as they travelled to table toppers 1874 Northwich U21 and were just edged out by 1 goal to nil. There are definite signs of improvement with the team and I'm confident they'll do enough to stay in the higher league. The development team isn't really about wins and is more about performances and developing talent for the first team and Dean is the perfect coach to take that on.

Their next game is away at Stalybridge Celtic U21s at St Damian's RC Science College in Ashton-Under-Lyne (OL6 8BH) on Sunday 23rd January at 2pm.

ESPFA Academy

Ste Chaney's Academy team took on Brighouse Town at the APEC Taxis Stadium and ran out 3-0 winners, that continues their 100% start to the season. Their next game is against Skelmersdale United in the North Cup at the APEC Taxis Stadium on Thursday 3rd February at 12pm.

In other Academy news, the ESPFA academy have relocated their classroom and training activities away from the APEC Taxis Stadium. This was following discussions between the club and the ESPFA in regards to maintaining the pitch and avoiding excessive use. I would like to thank the ESPFA for their understanding and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. They will still be representing Runcorn Linnets and playing all home games at the APEC Taxis Stadium.

Board Appointments

As many of you will have seen, our newly elected board members Jack Walsh, Brendan Connolly and Paul Riley officially took up their Directorships by attending their first Trust Board meeting. At the same meeting we appointed Kel Hoose as Treasurer and co-opted him onto the board along with Paul Eastup. It's great to be able to add such expertise and experience to the board and I'm absolutely delighted that Paul has agreed to return as I was very sorry to see him go in the first place.

I believe we now have the strongest board in the club's history, and we will now be concentrating on taking the club forward.

AGM Update

Some progress has been made with processing the club accounts, Paul Eastup has worked really hard with them and should be in a position to send them over to our Accountants by the end of the month. We have stayed in contact with the Football Supporters Association throughout and Kel Hoose has been in contact with the Financial Conduct Authority about extending the deadline for submission of the accounts with the annual return and we are confident that this will be granted.

We anticipate that we will be able to hold the AGM before the end of March and will update everyone once we are able to confirm a date. I would once again like to apologise for the delay in holding the AGM and thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Thank you for reading.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman