CHIPPENHAM TOWN; Bluebirds board on sure footing, says Applegate (From Wiltshire Times)

CHIPPENHAM TOWN; Bluebirds board on sure footing, says Applegate

10:00am Friday 26th October 2012 in Sport News By Dan Barnes

CHIPPENHAM Town chairman John Applegate says the ‘sensible people’ behind the scenes at Hardenhuish Park would never let the club fall into financial turmoil.

The future of fellow Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division outfit Kettering Town was the subject of a league board meeting last night while 2010-2011 league champions Truro City avoided expulsion from the Football Conference at the death last Friday as two businessmen paid a £50,000 bond to keep the club in existence.

Applegate says that the Bluebirds follow a different model and insists that the board of directors are committed to a sustainable future at Hardenhuish Park.

“Those clubs are run very differently to us – they have individuals who put their own money in the football club,” he said.

“It’s great at the time for the supporters but then the future of those clubs depends on the business ideas or otherwise of those individuals.

“At Chippenham, I’m not the be all and end all. We have a great board of directors, who are all sensible people and all make decisions together.

“I’d love for us to win the league and get promoted but every other club at this level has the same ambition and we’d never allow ourselves to get into trouble.”

The Bluebirds’ FA Cup run came to an end last Saturday but netted the club £15,000 in prize money.

Applegate is delighted with manager Nathan Rudge and assistant boss Richard Fey for guiding Town to within a whisker of the first round proper in their first season in charge.

He added: “Richard has managed at a junior club before but they’ve both been absolute naturals to management at this level.

“They’ve been absolutely fantastic and to get as far as they did in the FA Cup was brilliant – the team deserve a lot of credit too.

“On Saturday, our supporters were great and we must have had 200 or so people there at the game.

“Hopefully those fans will carry on getting behind the team because we’ve got the FA Trophy to come and then it’s all about getting ourselves up that league table.”