I am sorry to announce that Gerald Crossley is stepping down from the role of Senior Director. The "less young" ones will remember that Gerald moved up in the football world leaving Man United.....to play for Celtic in the late 60s.

Over the decades Gerald has quietly, but very effectively, gone about the business of getting things done around the club and last year took up the challenge of bringing some much needed day-to-day financial management to the club. Over the past 12 months, the club has benefited enormously from his detailed analysis and planning but the lure of 2 fresh grandchildren and not being able to give as much time to the role has meant that Gerald needs to take more of a back seat. I am pleased to say though that he has agreed to continue in his role of Chairman of the Academy.

They say that you can't keep a good man down. How true. I'm genuinely delighted to announce that "Supa" Syd White has agreed to come back as Chief Executive Officer of the Football Club. Syd was obviously C.E.O before needing to concentrate more on his personal work, but he was still always working away in the background. I'm thrilled to confirm that Syd will now revert back to his original role. Welcome back buddy!

I'm also pleased to announce that Pete Dennerly will join the board as a non-exec director. Pete has been absolutely tremendous in helping to run the office on a part-time basis over the past few years. He organises the Sportsman's Dinner, he spends June continually ringing around our sponsors trying to bring in much needed cash for perimeter boards and programme adds and is Celtic through and through. His experience and wisdom will be a great addition.

I feel that - belatedly - everyone deserves more information on the events of last season. Alan Kypriadis, working in good faith, had nominated 3 new directors that were prepared to join the board. These guys were professional and successful businessmen. The board met them, we had budgeted for their financial input and we had expected them to use their huge network to bring in fresh sponsors. Sadly, nothing ever materialised and moreover, Alan decided that it was better that he resigned from the board too.

The make up of the board as it stands is

FULL BOARD MEMBERS:
Rob Gorski
Syd White
Gerald Crossley
Gordon Greenwood
Bill McCallum
Arthur Boswell

NON-EXECUTIVE MEMBERS:
John Hall
Cllr Kevin Welsh
Pete Dennerly

I still feel that we need to add to the board and need a couple of new people with new ideas and fresh contacts. It is EXTREMELY difficult to get sponsors in today's environment. I'm envious of teams like Yeovil who are the only game in town for many miles around. Even companies 1 yard out of Stalybridge are being badgered by the football club in that particular town and Tameside has way too many teams competing for the same markets and we obviously live in the shadow of two of the biggest teams on the planet.

However the board will obviously continue to look for not only new sponsors, but new board members with the clear aim of trying to drive Stalybridge Celtic forward.

I thank all of the names mentioned above (and Paul Cannings who behind the scenes is a massive help in many ways) who not only give up their time each and every week, but give financially to the club too.