5 weeks on from my previous blog discussing the frustrations fans are navigating such as worrying about the future of our ground, witnessing a team with limited goals in them, and discontentment with results. However, football is a brilliant sport, and your fortunes can quickly change. With 98% of the members voting in agreement to allow the board to speak to potential buyers, it can ease the fans worries on the ground front in the meantime. While this does not provide any immediate resolution but it does allow fans to believe that it will be looked into when the new ownership occurs. It is still a freighting time behind the scenes as the club has been burnt before through ownership alongside many non-league so losing the fan-owned aspect is a risk but with the board and us fan we can all do our due diligence on any potential owner, and still have the power of a vote can help us find the right owner who will put the future of the ground as a top priority.
Not only this, but Banbury have also seen an upturn in results on the pitch stretching to a 7-game unbeaten run seeing 4 wins and 3 draws in the process. This is more about results too, The positive about this run is that performances have been much improved lots of shots on goal and more of front footed attacking approach thanks to the addition of Dan Jarvis alongside maintaining our implacable defensive record as leagues tightest defence. This is a credit to everyone involved as the tactical tweak of playing with a four alongside individuals taking responsibility and really lifting the environment is extremely commendable.
Lastly, the fan and player connection is growing with another sucessful fan forum evening held last Thursday night by Skipper and quiz host Yaw Ofosu. He was joined by Gedeon Okito (or should I say Kioso), AJ George, Harry Reilly, Alex prosser, Archie Hollyhead, Claudio (I can’t remember who I have played for) Dias and the three musketeers on the best quiz team ‘Naught percent’ George Forsyth, Jack Harding and Dan Jarvis.
At the start of December, Jack Harding approached me with a shared ambition—how can we strengthen the connection between fans and players? Since then, we’ve been in constant dialogue, exchanging ideas and exploring ways to bring everyone closer together. With Jack working his magic and plenty of creative discussions, we’ve developed a few exciting initiatives that we believe both fans and players will love.
After an indifferent start to the season with highs and some extreme lows we are now wanting to build that unity on and off the pitch to build momentum and further unite this club. We believe it is the perfect time to embed some of these initiatives and carry on making this second half of the season strong and develop a strong sense of community on and off the pitch. We are both really excited to launch some of these ideas and would love as much engagement as possible in regards to your thoughts, would you attend and lastly if you have any suggestions.
1) Quiz and Curry night
Our first thought is a similar to the fans forum the other day is a quiz and curry night. We would ask Reg’s café to make a large curry and the fans and players can have a curry, drinks, and a laugh together. A couple members of the playing and management squad will join each team of fans and will take part in a quiz. Held on a Tuesday so we don’t get the players on a two-day hangover for a Saturday match, it would be an evening where our competitive edge all can come out with questions on sport, general knowledge and BUFC. With a small admission fee to cover the cost of your meal for the curry, we believe it could be prosperous night for all where we can get together and have a laugh. There are a range of benefits to this, the club house can get money behind the bar, players and fans get to know each other and lastly having a curry and a couple of pints on a Tuesday night will eliminate any of your work stresses.
2) Coach travel either to Lowestoft or Leiston
We understand that the club has had to cut the costs of the coach this season due to our financial situation. However, having one or two coaches a season where you book in advance with a deposit so the club can plan how big of a coach to book, we believe getting the fans on the coach for a one off will be a good way to socialise between fans and players. Making it worthwhile with a trip over 3 hours we have identified Lowestoft and Leiston as potential fixtures we could do this with. Some of you fans may be reading this thinking how will this be any different to any of the coach journeys we have seen in the past but we would like to put a spin on it through a couple of ways. Firstly, players and staff will be mingled throughout the bus to avoid the disconnection. Secondly, after we get the three points and an away day win we will be putting in a halfway house where we would have some pub dinner and a couple of pints on the way back. This can be similar as to what Jack mentioned to how an away trip to Tiverton panned out and everyone had a singsong, a good laugh and some karaoke we could get even get Andrea True connection on the Jukebox singing – How do you like it, YAW, YAW, YAW.
3) Darts Night
A third idea, we was thinking of putting on is that we could get a few boards in the clubhouse and have a darts night, again with a similar vibe where we could Regs to get us some food, drinks open behind the bar and a darts tournament. A fan and a player can partner up and have little knockout tournament. Again would be a fantastic evening to interact even if you didn’t want to play darts, you can come down to the club, have a drink and a chat where we aim to build this community culture. Get your darts name ready, on the back of recent results you could have Harry ‘the rocket’ Reilly, Alex ‘piledriver’ Prosser or Dan ‘Taking the piss’ Jarvis.
A Microsoft Form will be available in the comments of this blog—if the direct link doesn’t work, you can find it in the comments. We’d love to get as many fans involved as possible, so please take a moment to vote and have your say!
As always, thank you for reading. Your support means the world, please like, retweet, share, and drop a comment—every interaction helps!
I would also like to end giving a a special shoutout to Jack Harding for not only his amazing performances on the pitch reaching his 14th clean sheet of the season but also reaching out to discuss ways we can become united as one.
Up the Puritans!
Spencer Reds❤️💛
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