£1.00 Welcome to Stag Meadow Windsor F.C. v Woodley United Saturday 4th November 2017 Kick Off 3:00pm Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Stag Meadow for todays HLP match against Woodley United. I offer a warm welcome to our visitors from Reading and trust supporters, players and officials have had a trouble free journey over. I extend that welcome to our match day officials and again hope Messrs Bougouizi, Kelly & Kaya enjoy their very brief stay with us in The Great Park. It has been an excellent past few weeks. Seven wins on the bounce and plenty of goals. We've also managed to keep a number of clean sheets, which is as pleasing as the goals flying in. The challenge now is to forget the last seven matches and start again. We have to apply the same levels of intensity and commitment and see if we can do it all over! At time of going to print we have just found out that we have been drawn at home in the Quarter Final of the Berks & Bucks against the winners of the tie between Ascot United & MK Dons. We have attempted to keep you updated with the most recent round of fixture changes and these are noted in this issue. One sad piece of news is the passing of Jimmy Hartridge. One of the good guys, a local footballing talent, taken away too soon. Our thoughts and condolences are offered to Jimmy and his family. Enjoy the game Matt Page 1 – www.thamesmotorgroup.co.uk From the Bench October has been an exciting month - 6 wins on the spin with 5 of the victories coming away from home. The group are working hard for each other and are enjoying each other’s company. It certainly helps having a settled squad to work with, and these victories have created a boisterous and enjoyable environment within the dressing room. We have had to deal with a change in goal for the last 5 games as Hugo has been in Italy with Brentford FC. It was an opportunity for Hugo to continue his development and to gain more experience within a professional club, and couple that with being away from home for 8/9 days it has been an invaluable lesson for him. In terms of replacing Hugo, we had one or two options. On the face of it Henry looked to be the ideal candidate, but once we looked at his schedule for our U18s and his involvement with the Academy it became apparent that we had to look outside the club. In my opinion Henry’s workload was too big, and the level of disruption within our U18s and the Academy was something that I had to consider. We opted to run with Justice for the 4 games and, in fairness, it worked out in our favour. He has been very well protected by the outfield players, and he had an extra game against Flackwell due to Hugo injuring himself in the warm up. Decisions need to made at certain times and on reflection did we get it right? Well, our results suggest we did! However, Hugo’s unavailability has thrown up an interesting debate. Both Sanj and Ian Gould consider themselves to be decent replacements and, for those of you with an even longer memory, John Bowley has been in touch and has also offered his services! It does lend itself to Sanj and Ian sharing the last game of the season. What do you think ?? Page 2 – www.thamesmotorgroup.co.uk From the Bench Back to reality! Our recent form has pleased everyone, goals scored and only 3 goals conceded in open play. The belief within the group is improving with every win, and we are now creating a winning culture. Admittedly one or two victories have been more substance over style, but the bottom line is that winning will always remain paramount. Having been away from home since the 14th October, and played 5 games, we are relying on a strong squad, and the input from our experienced players has been so important. Their desire and knowledge have been the main contributors to our form, and everyone is bouncing off the energy that is being created. The challenge ahead is to keep pushing each other and continuing to improve. We remain in the FA Vase, and we progressed in the Challenge Cup by defeating Flackwell on Saturday. Whilst every cup competition is important, the reality is that we will be judged on our league position at the end of the season, so when the opportunity comes along to take points we need to be ready and fully focused. The make-up of the squad is fairly straight forward. Gus is within the group to gain experience by working closely with Knighty and Barry and I would be disappointed if he did not learn from these two. Although his game time is limited in the First Team his time will come. Keaton is another striker who is chomping at the bit to get game time, but with Barry and Knighty performing as they are a degree of patience is required. Mick Page 3 – www.thamesmotorgroup.co.uk Trade Your Trade In May 2016 the Football Club launched its Trade Your Trade Scheme. The following are now our local business partners and we are very grateful for their continued support; Page 4 – www.thamesmotorgroup.co.uk Where in the World Paul Smithson has been appointed the Football Club’s Brand Ambassador and we thank Paul for volunteering his time. Paul has been tasked with driving the Windsor FC “Union” brand and you will see various initiatives over the next few months. To start with, we’d like to see you, or your Windsor FC Union shirt, in, on, next to or under landmarks of the world! Send your photographs to [email protected] and we’ll make sure they get proudly displayed on the website gallery page and in the match day programme. Can you work out where Paul is pictured below? If you guessed Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin you are correct. If you guessed he’s flanked by Chuck and Hank give yourself a bonus point! Page 5 – www.thamesmotorgroup.co.uk Hellenic League Round Up Premier Division @ 1st November 2017 P W D L GD PT Highworth Town 14 13 0 1 35 39 Bracknell Town 16 11 2 3 27 35 Flackwell Heath 16 11 2 3 19 35 Thatcham Town 16 10 4 2 24 34 Wantage Town 16 11 1 4 21 34 Brimscombe & Thrupp 17 10 2 5 12 32 Longlevens 15 6 4 5 -3 22 Royal Wootton Bassett 16 6 4 6 -8 22 Windsor 13 6 3 4 10 21 Brackley Town Saints 16 5 5 6 6 20 Binfield 13 5 4 4 -1 19 Oxford City Nomads 16 6 1 9 -3 19 Tuffley Rovers 15 4 5 6 -7 17 Woodley United 16 4 4 8 -18 16 Lydney Town 13 4 3 6 -6 15 Abingdon United 17 3 4 10 -18 13 Highmoor Ibis 15 2 5 8 -14 11 Ascot United 16 3 1 12 -21 10 Burnham 16 2 3 11 -30 9 Fairford Town 16 1 5 10 -25 8 HLP Fixtures Saturday 4th November 2017 Ascot United v Thatcham Town Brackley Town Saints v Highmoor Ibis Burnham v Bracknell Town Fairford Town v Wantage Town Highworth Town v Brimscombe & Thrupp Lydney Town v Abingdon United Royal Wootton Bassett v Longlevens HLP Results Saturday 28th October 2017 Binfield 1-4 Brackley Town Saints Bracknell Town 1-1 Thatcham Town Brimscombe & Thrupp 3-0 Ascot United Highmoor Ibis 1-1 Lydney Town Highworth Town 2-4 Wantage Town Longlevens 3-2 Abingdon United Royal Wootton Bassett 1-1 Fairford Town Tuffley Rovers 1-0 Woodley United www.hellenicleague.co.uk Page 7 – Kindly Sponsored by The Prince Albert How Far is that? Truro City's chairman has revealed he will ask Torquay to share Plainmoor if they gain promotion to the National League, as the White Tigers prepare to leave Treyew Road at the end of the season. Truro, who travel to Charlton on Saturday as the first Cornish club in the FA Cup first round since 1969, are flying in Step 2 and have dreams of promotion to Non- League's top-tier. However, redevelopment plans at Treyew Park, scheduled to finally begin at the end of this campaign, mean Truro will be without a home for the duration of the 2017-18 season. Speaking to BBC Sport, the club's chairman Peter Masters said: "Our friends at Torquay United will possibly host us again, I would have to ask them. "I'm a good friend of [Torquay chairman] Clarke Osborn, and I'm sure if Truro went knocking they would assist, there's no problem with that." The White Tigers hope to move to the planned Stadium for Cornwall, but work on the £10 million arena, which will be shared with the Cornish Pirates, is yet to begin. As a result, Treyew Road's developers have agreed to give Truro time to find a temporary home, but that agreement only runs until the end of this campaign. If Truro reach the National League, a move to Plainmoor could materialise, but failure to achieve promotion could see them remain in Cornwall, potentially playing their home games at South West Peninsula League side Bodmin Town. "If we get promoted then the decision will have to be taken as to 'do we want to take that promotion?'“ "If we do take it we'll be playing outside of the county for a period of one season, if we don't take it we'll be playing within Cornwall for that season.