Saturday 15 March 2008
Coca-Cola Football League 2
Bradford City vs Mansfield Town

Welcome to the Coral Windows Stadium for today's visit of Mansfield Town. On behalf of everyone at the football club, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the players, officials and supporters who have travelled from Mansfield for today's match.

I would like to start today by reflecting on our win against Chester City on Wednesday evening which ended a fairly poor spell of results for us, including three defeats in our last four home games. Hopefully, the victory at the Deva Stadium will get us back on track to finish the season on a strong note which will give confidence to Stuart, Wayne and all the fans as well. At the time of writing, Stuart is trying to bring in another loan signing to strengthen the squad. I have sanctioned this move so we will have to wait and see if it happens.

The game at Chester was played in very blustery conditions with a swirling wind and it was a good battling performance from all the players to ensure that we brought all three points back to the Coral Windows Stadium. This was helped by the support we had from an away following which officially numbered 250 but to me looked more like around 400 and they were very vociferous throughout the evening.

That kind of backing does encourage our players and, at the same time, has a negative impact on the opposition. To this end, when I came to the club as joint chairman, I was asked if it would be possible to get the TL Dallas Bradford End back for the use of home supporters. As you may have read in the local press and on the official club website, you can now buy season tickets for the TL Dallas Bradford End from all good ticket offices!

If we can get the kind of supporters who provide such boisterous backing for the team at our away matches to fill the TL Dallas Bradford End and provide similar support behind that goal, I believe the atmosphere will translate into other parts of the stadium and give a huge boost to the players next season. I would like to congratulate supporter Ben Atkinson on being the first person to buy a season ticket for the TL Dallas Bradford End and, as you may have read in the press, we were pleased to present him with a special shirt to mark the occasion.

When I arrived at the club, I said that I would use this column to update you on developments at the club, so I am pleased to be able to give you details today of our new executive club - The 1911 Club - which we are creating from boxes one, two and three in the Sunwin Stand. The seats outside these boxes are being upgraded to director quality and the area will have its own bar and lounge area as well as a 40-seat restaurant. The idea is to turn this new executive club into a business networking and marketing club and it will also be used on non-matchdays for business meetings and for the restaurant facilities which will be available to the public.

There are a strictly limited number of seats available in the 1911 Club and they are already selling very well. Anyone interested in joining should contact David Baldwin at the club or email davidbaldwin@the-bantams.co.uk

We are planning to hold an event in the President's Suite at the end of March at which we will showcase the kind of facilities that will be on offer and you can contact David for more details about that.

Thanks for your continued magnificent support and please get behind the lads today.

Enjoy the game,

Mark Lawn
Joint Chairman