One of the most frequent is why I have taken over the operation of the club. As far as I am concerned the answer to that one is simple: Eddie Howe and the team had started on this path to achieving an extraordinary recovery in terms of our results and league position - and having very much assisted in making the changes that made that possible and seen what it means to fans first hand and up close, I could not just stand by and see it all wasted by off the field problems.
I do want to make it quite clear that my initial actions and the support that I have had from the likes of Jeff Mostyn and Steve Sly in particular represented a lifeline, not a solution. The club was days away from sinking, Sport-6 were not in a position to do anymore and no one else had come forward.
So, to answer the other questions:
To date, everything has been about immediate priorities.
We settled the winding up petition last Tuesday evening. This has enabled the club to keep trading.
We have made rent payments that have satisfied the landlords to enable us to keep playing our games.
New funds are being secured on a local level - the first of which are to take care of other pressing matters that we have inherited, including HMR&C, which currently remains a serious issue, so that one is next on our list to tackle.
We know that the club has been snatched from the jaws of death - and achieving that and the superb form of the team under Eddie Howe has made everyone start to look at it differently - gates are going up, local businesses are viewing involvement with the club as a positive, not negative move and are for the first time in a long time getting behind us in much greater numbers and more significantly. And of course, it also helps with the job of raising the higher level of funds that will underpin a real recovery and that is what has been running parallel to the firefighting activities.
In terms of share ownership and executive positions, these are being resolved. Alastair Saverimutto has resigned his directorship. That clears the way to a new structure which we hope to formulate and agree with Paul Baker by early next week, but we have not allowed the lack of security or ownership to deter us from doing what has needed to be done.
So to summarise, immediacy has been the key so far and we still have a long way to go. What we are striving for is a club that makes everyone proud, run by people that will seek to prove that they are putting the club first -and in so doing, will also seek to win the trust and respect of the supporters and the community. We are doing our damnedest right now to make that happen.
A meeting was held at the club on Monday evening to pre-launch our first initiative "THE CENTURION CARD", and to get the opportunity to gauge feedback from a smaller audience including players and management prior to going live. The response, as expected was very positive and going into Tuesday's game the pledges of support have been amazing.
The Centurion Card concept has been put together to both help the club survive these difficult times in the coming weeks whilst rewarding the fans who support this initiative with long term benefits.The cards have been set at three financial levels ,black ,gold and silver.
Carrying one of these cards will give the holder varying degrees of spending power per season and many other fringe benefits , but primarily it will give the holder huge satisfaction that they were indeed one of a select few that helped turn around the fortunes of this great club. I urge you to support this weeks launch and application forms will be available at the ticket office, on the club's website and in the programme for the Notts County game this Saturday.
In the meantime, my thanks to all supporters and those in the community that are joining us in the quest to make it happen - and my sincere and heartfelt thanks to Eddie and the boys for keeping their side of the dream alive. They and all the staff that have stayed loyal and positive in these testing times are the ones that deserve the plaudits.