SUMMER HOLIDAYS!
I hope you are all relaxing after or looking forward to a good summer break. The summer is a fairly busy time at Football clubs and this summer has seen quite a lot of activity up at Cressing Road as our Manager sets out to build a substantially new young squad for the season ahead. Our two longest serving players - Brad Quinton and Mark Jones - have both been at the club for 10 seasons and have re-signed for the year ahead. Several other first team players have also stayed, but the emphasis this season is on younger players.
We have always prided ourselves on the playing surface at Cressing Road too and that is looking good too as the photo shows..
FIXTURES
Pre-season games are already underway against other local sides, with two 1-1 draws away against Canvey Island and Billericay, and a 4 - 1 win away against Burnham. Other pre-season games include matches at home against Dagenham & Redbridge on Monday 27th July, and against Crawley Town on Friday 31st July. I have watched a couple of the friendlies, and while it is difficult to draw early conclusions, the early work on fitness training ( supervised by the GB Judo fitness coach ) appears to be successful.
The Blue Square South league starts on August 8th ( yes August! ) with an away fixture to Eastleigh. Early home league matches include:
Tues 11th Aug v Lewes 7.45pm
Sat 15th Aug v Maidenhead 3pm
Sat 22nd Aug v Havant and Waterlooville 3pm
Mon 31st Aug v CHELMSFORD CITY 3pm
We hope for a bumper crowd ( 1200 + ) on August Bank Holiday for the Chelmsford derby and look to gain revenge for our defeat by them at Cressing Road last season. Full fixture details are at the link below.
Braintree Town Fixtures & Results
 WHAT IS IT?
Football leagues in England are organised in a pyramid, with well-defined progression routes from the most junior to most senior level. These levels in descending order are:
Barclays Premiership - Man. Utd., Arsenal, Chelsea,, etc
Coca Cola Championship - Ipswich
Coca Cola League 1 - Colchester Utd
Coca Cola League 2 - Dagenham & Redbridge
Blue Square Premier - Grays
Blue Square South - Braintree, Bishops Stortford, Chelmsford, etc
Blue Square South covers the whole of the south of England(see the fixture list link above ). Blue Square is an on-line betting company that sponsors the league.
STADIUM REDEVELOPMENT
The football club owns its current home, the Cressing Road Stadium, and is happy there. However any further progression up the non league ( or Football League! ) pyramid is conditional on two things - a successful team and a stadium that matches the Football Association's 'A' grading.
WG Developments has offered to build a new stadium satisfying all FA requirements - and donate it to the club - as part of a proposed Sports Village, Housing and Industrial development at the Pods Brook site ( at the first exit from the A120 as you entre the town from the Stansted direction). The football club would retain ownership of its current site for possible future development.
For further details go to
WG Developments - Flitch Way Development
You will have to register, but the site includes the vision for the whole development as well as outline plans for the football and tennis club relocations.
Braintree Council's Local Development Scheme currently supports relocation of the football club but to a development site in Panfield Lane.
CORPORATE SUPPORT THIS SEASON
The club values greatly the help it gets from local corporate supporters, particularly financial support in the forms of sponsorship and advertising. I fully understand the difficult economic climate, and of course the club has had to trim its budgets accordingly. Many thanks to all those companies that have been able to renew their support for the club, and a warm welcome to new 'corporate supporters'.
 remain our main club sponsor for the season ahead.
We will be running a FREE Corporate Hospitality Draw limited to companies that spend over £300 with the club on promotions before September. The draw for this will be at the first Home match in September ( Worcester City Sept 12th ). Example of prizes will be a FREE Match Day Sponsorship with up to 6 guests places at the match.
COME TO THE MATCH: HOME V THURROCK TUESDAY 27TH OCTOBER
I will be issuing invites to all recipients of this newsletter to come along to this home mid-week fixture. Please make a note of the date in your diary as we would like to see you at the club.
Please feel free to email me or
phone me with any reactions to the email newsletter - or indeed if you
have any contributions to make, or want to unsubscribe.
btfcmarketing@btinternet.com
Alan Stuckey
07800 886849
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BRAINTREE TOWN FC