Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, and welcome back to Priestfield for the first time this year for our League fixture against Colchester United. Without any disrespect to Colchester we had all hoped that today's fixture would have been against Premiership Fulham in the F A Cup, but unfortunately due to an horrific night in Accrington last Tuesday, it was not to be.

I'd maybe like to start by saying that very rarely during my Fifteen years as Chairman have I ever done other than support the team in a positive and encouraging manner and support individuals publicly, because I realise that although maybe results have not always gone the way we would have liked, the team and most individuals have always given their best, albeit their best may not on the day have been good enough.

I should mention that I was not at Accrington on Tuesday but did listen to the commentary of the game in detail from The Middle East, which in many ways is more difficult and frustrating, and certainly more lonely than being at the ground itself. Although I fully accept from those loyal souls that made the long journey on a cold Tuesday night to watch their team, that sitting at home would have been a better option in hindsight.

It would be fair to say that for ninety three minutes I cringed in despair, horror and embarrassment at what I was listening to, which I fully believe was a true reflection of the game and particularly the performance, or maybe more accurately, the lack of performance from the majority of our team. I can't, nor will I ever defend the indefensible and frankly, even after three days of trying, I can't get out of my head how bad a performance the boys put in.

As I've said, I have always tried to be positive and support the team generally because I know the lads will always show passion, commitment, effort and energy, and will give their all for the shirts on their backs. But those very same ingredients that have so often been our mainstay on so many occasions seemed to completely disappear and fail us at Accrington and, as one angry fan who called me late on Tuesday night said, we looked like a pub team, and that's not wishing to be disrespectful to pub teams.

Now I know the team themselves will be feeling upset at the way they played individually and collectively, and having spoken to Mark, who is well aware of my feelings, I know he is devastated at what happened and of course what we are now missing out on. But ultimately the display was nothing short of woeful and I apologise to all our supporters, especially those that actually made the trip, for the suffering and distress caused.

I repeat that from my point of view, whilst the result was disappointing, I am more upset that the team didn't appear to make the effort, didn't really turn up, that has caused me so much alarm, as that in itself is unacceptable at any Club, and especially at this Club. To Accrington Stanley, on behalf of all of us here at Gillingham, I wish them well and hope they enjoy their Cup run and not least the financial rewards that will certainly take a huge pressure off their ability to keep their Club in business.

Looking ahead, what's done is done and we can't unwind things, the Club is bigger than any one individual and will go forward, we've been through difficult spells before and survived and this setback is no different. I still care passionately for the Club, as I know do all our supporters and staff. I will continue to try and improve the finances at the Club to enable squad reinforcements, and I know the Manager and his coaching team will continue to give it their best shot. Ultimately I also know we have a team full of individuals who do care about the Club, and will want to redeem themselves going forward.

We have some tremendous qualities within the squad, talented players and players who will improve in the fullness of time, and these very same players have bought us much pleasure in many of their performances over past seasons. In addition I have agreed that the Manager can bring in some additional players on loan to add competition to the squad and hopefully one or two of them may have been signed by today.

Today is all about a new challenge and I have no doubt that the team will give it their all, and we in turn must give them every encouragement possible, as they strive to take maximum points off promotion chasing Colchester.

Enjoy the game and Up The Gills

Paul D. P. Scally
Chairman