Oxford United Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth wrote the following notes for the match programme for the visit of Cambridge United:
Today will be a very sad day for our fans as we mark the passing of Joey Beauchamp. I have been so moved by the reaction from not just the supporters but also the staff who knew him and saw him do amazing things on the wing for this club. I don’t have the words to help ease the pain that everyone has been feeling this week. What I can say is that he will never be forgotten at this football club, and we will find a fitting way to pay tribute in the long term.
Hopefully that can be some part of a new home for the club. This week saw the end of the very first stage of consultation about a new stadium at Stratfield Brake and I want to thank everyone for taking part in the online consultation. Thousands of fans took the time to join in and I hope that the huge support you have shown can help us get off to a good start.
That is all it is at this stage; every comment will be read and noted over the next two weeks before the next Council meeting on 15th March. Again, I just want to ask for a little patience. We want to make sure that this move is right for everyone. We know it is the right thing for the football club, but it has to be right for people who live near it, and it has to be right for the whole city of Oxford and even for the whole county.
We will continue to keep you informed of our plans and I hope you have been reading the excellent weekly updates that we are putting out; this week’s focussed on our commitment to the environment and making sure we are as green as we can be. I liked the line Yellow + Blue = Green…
On the pitch the team are doing so well. I watched the win at Charlton, and I think it may have been the perfect away day. There were 2,000 fans in the away end, and I hope you enjoyed your day: I thought the noise you made was amazing. Then the team went to Crewe and got another three points on a very difficult pitch and against a team who are fighting for survival. We matched that fight and got a second clean sheet in a week as well.
So now we come back home, we celebrate Joey’s life and we do our best to make sure we do that with what he would have wanted: an Oxford win. I met Joey many times. He was a very quiet, very humble person. It was the people around us who told me he was the club’s greatest ever player, not Joey himself. Sing his name loudly, pay your respects, look after your loved ones, and enjoy the game.
Tiger
You can download the programme at www.matchdayfix.com/oufc