If a week is a long time in politics, then a year like the one we've just had is like a lifetime in football. This time last year, we new that there were some challenges for the country, and football at our level, to overcome, but I don't think anyone could have anticipated the season being curtailed after just 8 games or that we would not see any competitive action beyond 3rd November.

We have, as a club, thanks to all of the hard work that has been going on off the pitch, emerged from the pandemic unscathed and the Trust Board and Lee Allinson and his staff have started to plan for the 2021/22 season with purpose and enthusiasm.

An attractive pre-season programme is planned and will be shared with fans once finalised, hopefully next week. It's likely to include home matches against Step 2 opposition as well as a game against a Premier League club's XI.

You will have seen that Lee has managed to recruit Cameron Mawer as his assistant manager. We have managed to retain Joe White's and Lucas Perry's services and are hopeful that we'll be able to retain all of the players that Lee wants to retain as well as attracting the targets that Lee is keen to bring on-board. If we can do all of that, then we can all start to look forward to the prospect of a successful 2021/22 season.

As ever, the next 6-8 weeks are going to be crucial. The board has agreed a preliminary budget with Lee and, while he is working hard towards fitting the squad he wants into the budget that he has available, we really need the club's owners - that's you - to help boost that budget to help him assemble the squad that he - and you - deserve.

As with last season, therefore, we are setting the fans a target of £25,000 of one-off and new/increased monthly donations. Every penny paid into the 12th Man Fund will go directly into the playing budget.

If we can achieve or exceed that target, we're hopeful that we can look forward to the new season with optimism.

We will post on thee website and Social Media channels regularly to let you know how we're progressing against that target.

Please do what you can to support the club - if you'd like to make a pledge, click here and follow the PayPal link.

Thanks in advance, and as ever, for your brilliant support.