Boreham Wood Chairman Danny Hunter, spoke this week about the clubs continued progress. From the first team performances and lofty league position, the new completed West Stand, the recent upgrades in our facilities, the continued growth of the PASE Academy and the record recruitment numbers for the clubs sports/education programme, that will be announced next week.
Hunter said “it’s been a great year to date for us, with the upgraded pitch, toilets and burger bars now finished. The new West Stand was also completed and we then got the unexpected bonus of Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis and a very good Arsenal team agreeing to come down and open it. Our league form also improved in 2014 and we deservedly won the Herts Senior Cup in April… Our start to this season has followed that good form on and our first team now sit top of the Conference South. We’re playing a really exciting brand of football that has surprised many but it’s great reward for the manager and the playing staffs hard work”.
Hunter went on “Blimey even our small crowds are up by 30% compared to this time last year. While the recent FA Cup revenue and Academy success, has allowed me to take on three more local employee’s onto our permanent staff and take on four new apprentices… These things might not sound much but for a community club of our size, to take local people off the unemployment register is important to me personally and is a fantastic club achievement.. I believe I can ensure that our off the park improvement will continue but as for us remaining top of the league, that is a very tall order and is much tougher for me to predict in such a good league”.
Hunter explained “According to many, our Conference South challenge cannot be expected to last with our budget. However we have never wasted money or lacked organisation, we’ve never lacked ambition or ever used a budget as an excuse to fail. If we had we’d still be in the Ryman North Division and in truth, everyone knew I didn’t enjoy that experience at all. I do though enjoy us now being the underdogs in this league and we believe with hard work and belief, we can attain Conference National football in the next three or four years. So the longer Ian Allinson and the dressing room remain as challengers this season, its great experience and who knows what can happen? Welling and Braintree have shown us all in recent seasons, that it can certainly be done.
“I’m not stupid, I know It’s an achievement just to compete at Conference South level on our crowds. So any further success will be testament to the financial stability I must bring but also the vision, energy and hard work of all my full time, part time, playing and non-playing staff. Next up we have a winnable home FA Cup tie against East Preston this Saturday and having only lost to Brentford and Carlisle after a replay in the last two years, it’s a competition we truly love. After Saturday we then travel to Havant in a top of the table, first versus second game and that is followed by a visit from our nearest neighbours and local rivals St Albans City, here at Meadow Park.. So as you can see, every game at the moment seems like it’s a must win but winning is a much more enjoyable habit than losing, so long may that continue. I’ll ensure that nobody gets carried away though with our start, we’re still just little Boreham Wood but with a belief that with hard work anything in life is possible and at the moment trust me, we have both the belief and hard work in abundance”. Hunter concluded.
