Chairman's Column 08.04.2023

In a perfect world no one would ever make any mistakes. Unfortunately there's no such thing, and here at Biggleswade United we, like everyone else, have unwittingly made our share of errors that we need to address if we are to grow into the entity that we want to become.

The women's section is settled and has made great strides this season. Our women's Red side is challenging for the league title and promotion while our Blue team is a young developing side that will improve and grow.

I still believe, however, that we have a way to go if we are to give it the importance within the club that it deserves.

We still, despite our efforts, haven't found nearly enough new female coaches for both the women's and the men's sides. We need more if we are to accurately represent the role of women in today's football and I will continue to talk with the Bedfordshire FA to find a way of ensuring more involvement of women at this level of football.

My door is always open and I would love to hear from women out there in our Community who would like to get involved with the club and get, free of charge, a Level One coaching course.

For many the men's first team is the engine of the club although at Biggleswade United our women's section has received some excellent sponsorship and and that has to be reflected in how they are treated.

I would like to see more fans going to their games, other members of other sections at the club such as the men's first team, reserves and youths also showing their support and hopefully cheering them on to promotion.

We need to increase the focus on them and to look at renewing sponsorship to allow us to focus on our dreams of making it all the way to the women's national league.

If we are to do that we need better facilities for training because our pitch cannot physically accommodate so many training sessions, and so many games being played on it, neither from a time, nor a wear and tear, perspective.

Up to now, we have not perhaps given them the priority that perhaps they have deserved and we need to address it.

We have not been able to provide adequate training facilities for our youth teams and we will need to drastically improve what we can offer them if we are youth section is to grow as we would like it to.

We are currently in negotiations with Stratton Upper School with a view to being able to use the new 3G pitch which will hopefully be in place by this October. It is long overdue and much needed.

After a year away, our men's first team have settled back well into the comfort of their Spartan League home but I would still very much like to see a greater progression from our young reserves side into the first team squad although to do that we need a better, more fluid, conversation to take place between the two entities.

The problem with that is that both teams play at the same time so it is impossible to double up and watch both sides play.

Our main priority for the next few months is the thorny subject of raising much needed sponsorship to enable as to continue the work that we are doing.

As always, if anyone is interested please email me directly at biggleswadeunited@gmail.com

On the pitch our men's first team entertain Stotfold this Saturday (ko 3pm) and then travel to Risborough Rangers on Easter Monday ( both games kick off at 3pm) before taking on league leader Leighton Town on Wednesday night (ko 7.45pm).

Also playing on Easter Monday will be our men's reserve side who welcome Sharnbrook First to the Keech Hospice Care stadium (ko 3pm).

Meanwhile our women's Red side have a massive game when they visit AFC Dunstable on Sunday (ko 2pm) for the first in a trilogy of matches that will almost certainly decide who goes on to win the title and get promotion.