FA Cup Game Against Liversedge

Another great crowd attended our FA Cup fixture against Liversedge and they were rewarded with a great performance and victory to take us through to the 2nd Qualifying Round.

The victory was of course overshadowed by the horrific injury sustained by Alex Downes. As I'm sure you've hopefully all heard, Alex is ok and underwent surgery to repair facial fractures and now just needs to rest and allow himself to heal. I wish Alex all the best and we will look after him while he recovers.

It was a truly horrific situation but I would like to thank everyone for their actions especially Luke Davies for his swift response and taking care of Alex until the paramedics arrived, the Liversedge Physio for assisting Luke, Josh Christian for his swift action in calling for an ambulance and manager Calum McIntyre for going straight to be with Alex after the game and staying with him. I would also like to thank Mike and Ste Bignall and everyone else who assisted in getting the goal out of the way of the ambulance gate so the ambulance could gain access to the pitch. The response time of the ambulance was also very good.

I'd also like to mention our Club Captain Peter Wylie who calmly stepped up to take control of the situation with our players who were obviously distressed at seeing their teammate in such a bad state and he even helped us move the goal.

It was great to win the game and be in the hat for the next round, it was a very good performance and a deserved win. It would be absolutely amazing to go on a run in the FA Cup.

As I mentioned in my notes for the Liversedge programme, the FA Cup evokes memories of cup games at Canal Street and I would love us to host a 1 st Round Proper game at the APEC Taxis Stadium. Now that we know we have drawn Bamber Bridget in the 2 nd Qualifying Round it brings back even more memories from the good old days of the old club.

Women's FA Cup

The Linnets Ladies started their league campaign with a 4-2 defeat against Warrington Wolves but on Sunday they will make history with their first appearance in the FA Cup at the APEC Taxis Stadium against Preston North End Women.

It's sure to be a great game and I would urge as many of you as possible to come out and support our Ladies in their first appearance in the FA Cup. Admission is only £2 and the bar and tea bar will be open.

FA Youth Cup

The Youth Team took on Marine in the FA Trophy at the APEC Linnets Stadium last Wednesday and they put in a brilliant performance to win 1-0 with a late goal from Luke Smith.

They play AFC Liverpool in the next round, again at the APEC Taxis Stadium on Wednesday 15th September at 7.30. I'm sure the boys will put on another great performance and it would be good to see as many of you there as possible, admission is only £1.

Linnets Juniors

It has been absolutely fantastic to see so many Linnets Juniors at our home games. It was really good to see a crowd of over 500 at a midweek game and even better that so many of them were young fans. They are the future of this club and hopefully they keep coming, they certainly will if Calum's boys keep putting on performances like they did against Kidsgrove.

There is a clear one club mentality from everyone involved with the Linnets now and I'd like to thank everyone involved with the Juniors for all their help over the last few months. We will be introducing a few more initiatives during the season to attract even more Juniors to our games.

Water Plus update

Whilst I was at the APEC Taxis Stadium on Tuesday someone from United Utilities turned up to do a survey of the site. I showed him round and made it clear what I thought of the chargeable areas that Water Plus were claiming.

He was in agreement that all the areas other than the clubhouse and the small area of tarmacked car park drain off onto either the Juniors pitches or the Hybrid Pitch. He will now submit his report and hopefully we will be nearer to a resolution.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

Men's Team Matches

The lads have just had a hefty schedule with 3 games in 6 days (with the first of those games being 2 hours long) and to come away with 3 wins is exceptional. The crowd of 729 at our Bank Holiday derby against 1874 Northwich was tremendous.

It was great to see so many fans at the 1874 Northwich game, 729 is a tremendous figure for us, especially following the 704 against Widnes and it was once again great to see so many young fans in attendance. Let's hope they keep coming back for more.

FA Cup Game Against Liversedge

Saturday is all about the magic of the cup and for a club like ours a run in the FA Cup can be very special for the fans and the players. The impact last season's run had on Marine can still be seen now with the exposure they received and of course the prize money.

For me the FA Cup also evokes memories of Canal Street and seeing Runcorn on Match Of The Day and it would be amazing if we could emulate that. Seeing the BBC cameras at the APEC Taxis Stadium would be brilliant and it would be even better to see the stadium and our boys in yellow and green on the TV.

We are still a long way from that but we will just enjoy our run in the cup while we can, the extra time win against Avro was great and you could tell how much our fans enjoyed it by their response to the players at the end of the game.

Saturday's game won't be an easy one for the Linnets, Liversedge are top of their division having won all 5 of their league games so far and the lads will really need the help of the fans to get us over the line. We need you to be the 12th man, you've already been turning out in numbers and now we need you to bring the noise. We need to leave the players in doubt about who the home side is.

Water Plus update

Unfortunately, Water Plus have struck again, after thinking we had started to get somewhere with them, they have reverted to kind by now sending another credit agency after us. I have explained the same situation to them and that the previous agent I dealt with agreed that Water Plus had made a mistake after visiting the site and I am now awaiting a reply.

Hopefully they will be reasonable and we can finally get a resolution. It's just a shame that only the agencies that Water Plus refer us to are willing to talk to us and Water Plus themselves seem so unwilling to understand why we are unwilling to pay the amount they are demanding.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

Men's League Campaign

We've had a mixed start to the season with a good win in the Halton derby in front of a huge crowd followed by a disappointing defeat against Glossop. Tuesday night's win in the FA Cup replay against Avro was huge for the club with it setting up another home tie against Liversedge on 4th September at the APEC Taxis Stadium. The attendance of 473 is a very healthy crowd for a Tuesday night as well.

Your support

I'm absolutely delighted with the crowds we have had so far this season but what I'm most pleased about is the amount of young people that have been coming to games. They are the future of this club and it is essential that we attract and retain future generations of supporters.

One of my priorities when I became Chairman was to increase attendances and the amount of young people attending our games. I'm absolutely delighted that our strategies already appear to be bearing fruit with over 100 season ticket holders and lots of Little Linnets attending our two home games this season but we won't be resting on our laurels and will continue to attempt to improve the match day experience for all fans.

I know I say it a lot and it's becoming a bit of a tired cliché but without fans football really is nothing and that goes double for us being fan owned. We've signed some big commercial deals so far this season but it really is the fans paying their money at the turnstile, the bar, the tea bar, buying programmes and goalden tickets that funds everything we do. But it's much more than that, we are one of the best supported clubs in this league and that makes a huge difference to our players and can even have an influence over if a player signs for us or someone else. We need you to attend in big numbers and make lots of noise, singing songs to spur the players on.

Win or lose, the players know you are there to support them and that can make a huge difference. Calum and I have been blown away by the level of support so far this season and I hope we can continue to give you a reason to return every week.

APEC Taxis Stadium

As mentioned earlier lots of you have been in the ground this season so I'm sure you have all now seen the improvements that have been made around the ground and in the clubhouse. The maintenance team have worked tirelessly to get the place looking how it now does, including relocating the bar into the Juniors old Nest café after the Juniors approached us about giving up the space, installing the walled seating where the old bar stood and making the old compound now unrecognisable. A special mention to Alan Jones' rock garden which is lovely feature to greet people as they enter the ground through the main turnstile.

None of this would be possible without a dedicated team of volunteers in our maintenance team (most of whom also double as the Commercial Team), they have absolutely transformed this club and I don't just mean physically. There seems to be a much happier atmosphere and environment around the club now and that is down to the people that make up the club including the many people who volunteer for our Juniors.

We won't be stopping there though, work continues on the new media gantry above the main stand to replace the scaffolding in between the dugouts, the new stand has its concrete base and we are of course aware of the need for some cover at the bottom end of the ground.

I have produced a club development plan which I am hoping to be able to share with you soon and that details what we need to do to meet grading requirements for Step 3 of the football pyramid.

Akidamey

I took my two sons to the Akidamey on Sunday and I swear there's more kids there every week and it really is great to see so many of them having fun playing football. One of the many benefits of the hybrid pitch is being able to let the Akidamey use it and seeing how much the kids enjoy playing on it.

It's also very heartening to not only see the number of girls taking part increasing but to also see boys and girls playing together. The Juniors are doing a lot of really good work around increasing girls' participation in football with the new Linnets Lionesses initiative and it's great to see because football really is for everyone.

Sky Sports

With the improvements to the bar and The Clubhouse, the board made the decision to purchase Sky Sports, this means that we will now be able to show the Premier League games before and after our Saturday games and we will also be able to show the Sunday games when our Development and/or Ladies Teams are at home.

The ultimate aim is to have The Clubhouse open during the week for all Premier League and Champions League games. All the money the bar makes helps us to fund the ambitions of the club, hopefully the work we have done so far shows you that we are investing the club's money wisely and it would be great to see as many of you as possible stay behind after matches in The Clubhouse.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

Men's League Campaign

What a way to start our league campaign, with over 700 people inside the newly named APEC Taxis Stadium, to watch us run out 2-0 winners against Halton rivals Widnes, with great goals from both Lawrence Smith and Ryan Brooke.

It really was amazing to see so many people in the ground to watch the Linnets and I have to admit to feeling a tremendous sense of relief when I saw just how many were there. So many people have put in so much hard work over the last few months and whilst I was hoping for a good crowd, no one was really expecting so many. It was my first competitive game as Chairman and whilst I'm happy with how it went, myself and the board have already learnt lessons from it. We need to ensure we get everyone in the ground before kick off and not run out of draught beer!

Tuesday night was not the result we were hoping for against Glossop but we can't dwell on it and must now look forward to the FA Cup game against Avro. I love the FA Cup and I am hoping for a good run in the competition, we all remember what happened to Marine after they beat us on penalties.

Foodbank donations

I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated to the foodbank collection at Saturday's game against Widnes, you donated six shopping bags full of goods.

We will be working closely with the foodbank over the season with a donation point at every home game and we'll also have some charity tins for spare change.

Super Sunday

This Sunday will be Super Sunday as we host a double header of our Development Team playing their first home league game of the season against 1874 Northwich at 12pm and our Ladies team continuing their pre-season campaign against Mossley Hill Ladies at 2pm. We will also be debuting Sky Sports in The Clubhouse where we will be showing the London Derby and the bar will be open throughout. Why not come down, support the Linnets teams and watch some Premier League football?

Season Tickets

Most season tickets were collected at the Widnes game. For those season ticket holders who didn't attend on Saturday, you can collect them at the next home game you attend and we will have your name on the turnstile so you can gain entry.

New Stadium Sponsor

I am absolutely delighted that we have signed a three year deal with APEC Taxis to rename the stadium the APEC Taxis Stadium. I know I said this in my last update but this is now the biggest commercial deal the club has ever signed and I wanted to say another massive thank you to our commercial team who have worked so hard to make this happen.

APEC are a brilliant local business and have been supporters of the club for many years now and I am looking forward to working with them for many years to come.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman

Runcorn Linnets are delighted to announce that we have secured a deal with APEC Taxis to become our stadium sponsor.

The deal sees the long-established company, Runcorn's biggest taxi service, have naming rights to the ground for the next three seasons.

It is now known as APEC Taxis Stadium.

APEC have been long-time supporters of the Linnets, notably as our match programme sponsors, and we are very pleased to see them further enhance this much-valued relationship.

APEC's business family has been established for more than 50 years.

In 2000, Apollo and Echo Taxis merged to form APEC Taxis, which now has more than 100 Halton-licensed drivers.

They have established a loyal clientele, with more than 100 account holders, while constantly innovating to improve customer service.

Dave Jones, chairman of Runcorn Linnets, said: "It is great to see a Runcorn firm coming forward to sponsor the town's flagship sporting facility and great to have welcomed more than 700 fans to APEC Taxis Stadium for the opening of our Northern Premier League West Division season for the victory against near neighbours, Widnes.

"The three-year deal with such a reputable and reliable company is very reassuring and means that we can move forward and look to the future with even greater confidence.

"APEC Taxis Stadium is used by our senior men's, women's, youth and junior teams. Its world-class hybrid pitch is also available for hire by other teams so it is even more of a community football hub."

Dean Kennington of APEC Taxis said: "The community is very important to us and Runcorn Linnets are a big part of that community.

"We support a number of local charities and sports organisations while investing a lot of time and effort into enhancing our customer experience.

"As Runcorn's largest taxi company, we are proud to further support the town's biggest football club and put our name to APEC Taxis Stadium."