Oxford United Chairman Grant Ferguson wrote the following notes for Easter Monday's programme for the Sky Bet League One game against Fleetwood Town:
Good afternoon and welcome to the Kassam Stadium for today’s game against Fleetwood Town.
As we return to League One action following the recent international break, I was delighted to see three of our players representing Oxford United on the global stage. Ciaron Brown, Fin Stevens, and Greg Leigh received deserved call-ups, highlighting the progress they’ve all made this season.
No game in this league is easy and to be in the position we are in is testament to the work of the management and players, who have demonstrated incredible resilience on the back of a tough run of fixtures and other potentially disruptive events, to give us a real chance of making the play-offs.
We now have six huge games left this season, with four of those matches, including today, at home. We need to make the Kassam a very difficult place to come to for opposition teams to give us the best possible chance of ending the season on a high. So let’s make some noise from the first whistle to the last – to have a full crowd behind them gives the players a massive boost and your backing is very much appreciated by Des and the squad.
As many of you will hopefully have seen, we recently unveiled details of a major new community initiative as part of proposals for the new stadium. The Dreaming Spires project will bring together a number of commitments including activities, outreach programmes, initiatives, apprenticeships, local employment and much more.
Football plays such an important role in local communities, with Oxford United in the Community already helping to tackle some of Oxfordshire’s biggest issues. We take great pride in seeing the club crest being used for good in the community and the new stadium will allow us to greatly increase the number of programmes we deliver so we can help many more people.
To celebrate the launch of the Dreaming Spires project the club has launched an immediate £10,000 fund for charities, grassroots clubs, schools and voluntary groups. The fund will provide ten £1,000 grants to Oxfordshire-based not-for-profit organisations that support the provision of sport and physical activity, as well as health and wellbeing programmes. For more information, please be sure to visit our stadium website (https://oufcstadium.co.uk/dreaming-spires/).
Finally, I want to wish Des and the players the very best of luck for today’s match. Here’s hoping for a good game and a positive result to round off the Easter weekend. Let’s back the boys and make it an electric atmosphere!
COYY,
Grant
You can read the full programme online at www.matchdayfix.com/oufc