Shrimps Trust column: Good signs on the pitch, areas to address off it and thanking our departing Trustees

Hello Shrimps fans and welcome back after what’s been a particularly sweltering summer break.

We hope you’ve all managed to keep well throughout the heat spells and have emotionally recovered from England’s World Cup semi-final defeat.

As we enter back into club football, your emotions are likely to be put to the test again.

In terms of on-pitch matters, things have been undeniably positive.

The summer kicked off with the announcement of Adam Lakeland as our new manager, who brings great experience and ability at this level.

I think it’s fair to say that him joining is something of a coup.

Since Adam’s arrival, we’ve seen some very good players enter the building to make the core of what is a strong squad for the upcoming season, with a great blend of youth and experience.

Hopefully the management team will be able to finalise those last few signings to top off the squad.

We now find ourselves in the rare position of entering the season as one of the favourites: something that many Shrimps fans, younger ones in particular, will never really have seen.

On the Trust side of things, we recently held our AGM; minutes from which should be with members soon, if not already.

The AGM saw the departure of several trustees in Pat Stoyles, Ben Cassar, James Main and Joe Kennedy.

We would like to put on record our thanks for their respective efforts for the Trust which, in some cases, have spanned multiple years and spells.

We now move forward with a slimmed-down board and should be able to share news of our new roles shortly, if not yet announced.

With the slimmed-down board this year and nobody putting themselves forward for nomination, we remain open to people joining as a trustee through a process called ‘co-opting’, where someone is voted onto the board until the next AGM.

This can be helpful for people to initially get a feel for being on the Trust without the rigour of a nomination and election.

If you have skills you feel could contribute, then please do get in touch via [email protected].

At our AGM, key issues brought up by members present on the night revolved around the off-field situation at the club.

A number of worries were expressed regarding various matters, some of which were undoubtedly concerning.

As a new-look board, we are currently in the process of establishing lines of communication with key figures at the club and will endeavour to update members and fans with more information as soon as we are able.

In the meantime, if you do have concerns you would like to bring to us, please do get in touch via [email protected].

Things are looking in a much stronger position on the pitch than they were a few months ago.

We urge the club to ensure that any off-field issues are resolved, so that they do not mar and potentially undermine what could be an exciting and successful season.

We now turn our attention to the first matches of the new campaign.

It will be exciting to see Adam’s new-look team in competitive action for the first time. Up the Shrimps!