Exceprts from the Chairman's Programme Notes...
"Looking ahead to 2019 on the first day of the year also gives us the opportunity to state our aims and work towards them. My first aim is to finish the North Stand, which has been a bane of my life for years. I can’t believe the problems we have encountered getting this stand put up to improve our stadium for future generations to enjoy.
"We hope to resume construction work in the middle of January and, barring any more issues, we should have it completed during the summer.
"But my biggest wish is that we attract more local support to our games because it is getting harder and harder to compete as a Football League club on our gates. From my part I can’t expect that to happen on its own. I hae got to keep trying to provide a winning team of management and players that takes League Two by storm, in much the same way Lincoln and MK Dons have done in the first half of this season.
"It is success that brings people out and we must strive to deliver that. We all know our budget is mid-table and we all know therefore that to get to the top of the pile we have got to overachieve, game after game.
"Apart from a brief spell in League One under Gary Smith when we in the top three, I don‘t think we have ever been sitting at the top of a football league division for any period of time. If we could change that, we could change our home gates.
"Of course, given the budget of those at the top like Lincoln, MK Dons and Mansfield, I am sure we would have a much better chance of being up there with them but that is not going to happen unless we get the 5000 home gates that provides the income to attract some more top players.
"Without those numbers each week – or without a significant investor - we have got to box clever and develop our own top players, either to move them up the pyramid to help finance the club or to help drive us to the top.
"Or, ideally, both. If we are not developing our own players, there is really no point to our current business model, so it is great to see lads like Arthur Iontton, just 18, staking a claim to a First Team shirt and I suspect Liam Smyth won’t be far behind him."
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Read the Chairman's full programme notes in Tuesday's Stevenage v Newport County programme, available around the ground for just £3.
