Thank you all for attending as we speak’s Sky Bet League One fixture at Fratton Park. We welcome everybody who has made the journey from Cheltenham and hope you all have a secure journey home.
Our commiserations to Cheltenham, who might be annoyed to have missed out on a visit to Wembley for the Papa Johns Trophy closing following a penalty shoot-out defeat at Plymouth on Tuesday. Their efforts will now be totally targeted on climbing up the desk, so we ought to be in for one more aggressive and entertaining sport this afternoon.
Thank you to all who made the lengthy journey as much as Lincoln final Saturday. We have been dissatisfied to not come away with all three factors, however proud that so a lot of our supporters contributed to one more full stadium this season. With our ticket allocations at Cambridge and Bristol Rovers already bought out, all of us stay resolute in our perception there may be every little thing to play for with 16 video games nonetheless remaining. A busy interval, with eight fixtures earlier than the tip of March, offers us a lot to look ahead to.
Our final match noticed us formally welcome new assistant head coach Jon Harley into the dug-out for the primary time since his appointment earlier that week. As was the case with John Mousinho, we undertook an intensive and diligent search and this time we benefitted from John being a full a part of the choice course of. Jon arrives with greater than 10 years of teaching expertise at Chelsea, in addition to a taking part in profession spanning greater than 400 appearances, together with a spell at Pompey. We are delighted to have him on board and want him each success in working with John, our teaching and first crew workers, and all our gamers.
Supporters arriving at Fratton Park as we speak and passing the north-west entrance to the stadium might have observed signage marking out the location the place the Jimmy Dickinson statue might be unveiled later this 12 months. I used to be privileged to be invited by the Pompey Supporters’ Trust to go to the North London studio of sculptor Douglas Jennings final week to see first-hand the progress already made. Even in its current, unfinished state, the statue seems to be superb and I do know these of you who’ve already contributed to the fundraising marketing campaign might be thrilled by the detailed {and professional} portrayal of a real Pompey nice.
The PST nonetheless want to boost the ultimate £25,000 of their £125,000 goal to finish the undertaking. The final mile is commonly the toughest, however the ending line is in sight and banners the place the statue might be situated embrace a QR code, which is able to take you straight to the Crowdfunder web page the place you may select to make any donation of your selection. We hope the statue will be unveiled within the early levels of subsequent season and might be one of many centrepieces of the membership’s one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary celebrations.
Today sees us mark two necessary events. Firstly, we’re participating within the nationwide ‘Unite for Access’ marketing campaign. With 22 % of the UK inhabitants estimated to have some type of incapacity, it means disabled individuals are the biggest minority group within the UK. With many disabled followers feeling that attending dwell sports activities isn’t doable, resulting from environmental and societal limitations, we have to all up our sport to enhance accessibility. At Fratton Park, we’ve got made a lot wanted progress with new viewing wheelchair areas within the North and South Stands, whereas this season we’ve got offered a brand new Changing Places facility within the west nook of the South Stand.
Next season we are going to open 15 new wheelchair areas within the new Milton End, with elevate entry to larger ranges, importantly which means that disabled away followers can sit with their very own supporters for the primary time in a few years. Of course, many disabled individuals don’t simply need higher amenities to observe the sport, however the likelihood to play too.
Pompey within the Community provide quite a lot of unbelievable alternatives for individuals to take part in taking part in soccer. The Pompey Amputees crew are on the match as we speak and can parade across the pitch at half-time. There may also be a bucket assortment held for ‘Pompey Pedals’, a free initiative run by PitC that makes use of specifically tailored bikes and gear to permit households to cycle collectively, no matter any disabilities.
This weekend additionally sees soccer marking one 12 months because the invasion of Ukraine began. ‘Football Stands Together’ has seen us proudly fly the Ukrainian nationwide flag at Fratton Park, reminding us all of of our solidarity with Ukraine. The flag will proceed to fly right here till the conflict ends.
We are again right here on Tuesday night time for our rearranged sport with Bolton – which was postponed final September. A reminder that half-season tickets will not be legitimate for this one fixture and people holding a half-season ticket might want to buy a match ticket.
Thank you all to your attendance this afternoon. Enjoy the sport and PUP!
Andrew Cullen
CEO