U's Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth wrote the following notes for his column in the programme for the game against Doncaster Rovers:
Good afternoon everybody and a warm welcome not just to our own fans but also to everyone who has travelled south with Doncaster today.
The game comes at the end of another positive week which has seen us extend our unbeaten run and make progress in the Leasing.com Trophy. Football can be a strange game sometimes. I was more frustrated by the 2-2 draw away at Accrington than I was by the 2-2 draw at home to Portsmouth, and technically we probably lost that game!
The frustration last Saturday was because we were leading twice and had to settle for a draw. On Tuesday we needed a Rob Dickie goal to make it 2-2 and that last-minute goal changed everything because it meant that we went through to the knock-out stages with a game to spare. It would have been nice to top the group, but the first objective was to go through. I think people underestimate the money that can be made in that competition nowadays. It used to be that you needed to reach Wembley to really make significant money, but the involvement of the Premier League clubs has changed that and the prize money in the early stages is much better these days, which all helps.
Not everything is about money and that is why we decided to reduce the prices against Sunderland in the Carabao Cup. I am sure it will be a good crowd - maybe not the size of the crowd that saw us beat West Ham in the last round but a good one all the same, and we wanted to reward your loyalty by cutting prices a little bit. Please help us get as many people here as you can because a win would get us through to the quarter finals and a big crowd making lots of noise to support the team would give us the best chance of doing that.
One other thing I wanted to applaud in my notes this week was a debut for Fabio Sole on Tuesday, a young midfielder who became the latest player from the youth team to break in to the first team. He played well and showed a little bit of composure to score in the penalty shoot-out and I hope we will see him and Fabio Lopes, who also played in that game, a lot more. I think there were eight players involved on Tuesday who had been in the Academy at one stage, which makes me so proud of this club and everything it stands for.
If you are unable to get to every game, why not buy one of our new flexi-tickets? We designed this specifically for the fans that cannot attend every week, to allow them to purchase tickets in advance for a discount. This helps both you and the club, so if you come to several games but cannot make them all, this is an ideal option.
Enjoy the game,
Tiger
You can read the full programme online at www.matchdayfix.com/oufc