Firstly I would like to thank everybody that plays their part in making sure that this historic football club continues to exist. In a season where non-league football lost teams such as North Ferriby United and Thamesmead Town, it is so important that clubs recognise how lucky they are to have dedicated volunteers to help keep them afloat. Therefore, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my fellow Directors, the Management Group and the Youth Section committee. We spend many hours in meetings to ensure the smooth running of our beloved Grays Athletic and I really appreciate their help and support.

I also want to acknowledge the massive contribution made by our match day volunteers. They all do a fantastic job to ensure that our home games are a good experience for our fans and visiting teams. My thanks go to Mark and Alison Popham for doing such a great job in taking care of security and hospitality. My appreciation also goes to the fund raising team (David, Glyn, Audrey, Ant and Danny) who run the programme and merchandise sales as well as the weekly and special raffles.
Then, of course, I must again thank Colin Tillett for the magnificent job he does to maximise our revenue from programme and pitchside advertising. All of the monies raised are so essential to the survival of the club. Also, I would like to thank Rebecca and Kim for providing the smiles on the turnstiles whatever the weather!
Janet and Tony Packer also make sure we meet the various League requirements with team-sheets and other administrative matters and I am very appreciative of all they do to keep us on the “straight and narrow”.

Additionally, my thanks go to Stewart Goshawk for operating the PA system and keeping everyone informed, Peter Jackson for capturing some great photos of the players, mascots and sponsors and Phil Boston for making sure we keep our Football Web Pages up to date and for his help with the organisa- tion of social and fund raising events.

Our communications team has again been excellent this season at to that end I would like to thank Rob Seaman for his work on the website and the club’s social media output and Dave Seaman for undertaking the press officer role and writing his informative and honest match reports.
In terms of our away travel, Mike and Jean Love have organised some really good coach trips to our games outside of the county and I thank them for arranging these .

My appreciation also goes to the team management, because unless you go “behind the scenes”, you wouldn’t realise the amount of time and effort they put in. So thanks to Jim, Paul, Chris, Dave, Lauren, Dan, Sim and to Jamie Stuart for his contribution to the club in this and previous seasons. Also, I would like to thank the youth team managers for their work and a big thank you to Phil Sackey for his work with the reserve team, which has given youth players from the older age groups an opportunity to progress into men’s football. I also want to express my gratitude to the players and particularly those that have been with us for a number of seasons.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the companies that sponsor the club – your support is really essential to the survival of the club. A special mention to our kit sponsors, Griffin and Paragon IFA for their continued sponsorship of our first team kits.

Finally, to you the supporters. Thank you for sticking with the club and the team. I know that at times it is not easy to follow a homeless football team that are stuck in mid table, so your dedication and loyalty should really be applauded. I am confident that season 2019-20 will be our most successful on and off the pitch since the club became fan owned in 2016.

I hope that you all stick with us and enjoy the next stage of the journey.

Thanks again

Steve Skinner
GAFC Chairman