It was good to see that common sense finally prevailed and the fans of Chester got their wishes when the majority of BSP Chairmen voted for Chester to be expelled from the league. It is a sorry state of affairs that matters were allowed to develop this far and cause the ongoing ridicule and confusion upon the league that had been evidenced. There will be some teams such as us that are seen to gain and some seen to lose once Chester's results are confirmed as expunged although the longer-term integrity of the competition is far more important here and so the league table at the end of the season will not lie and will judge the remaining 23 teams only against each other. Finally, we wish those long-suffering Chester fans all the best in setting up a new club and they have no further to look than AFC Wimbledon for motivation to see what can be possible.

One of the key areas of focus for the new Chester club going forward will be their youth set-up and I don't need to lecture to all of you how important this has been for our own club over the years. The formation of SoLYD has also been a crucial stepping stone to set the strong foundations of self-support in place going forward and inspiration has been taken from clubs such as Norwich to see what can be achieved through good management aided by strong support from the fans.

Loyal Luton has already donated £5,000 to SoLYD this season whilst we have also committed to raising/ donating a further £2,500 which will fund the U15's on an important tour to Denmark coming very soon. In line with this over the course of the next few weeks we will be holding e-bay auctions for the following signed shirts;

• Ed Asafu-Adjaye - this is the away shirt from last season that Loyal Luton sponsored;
• Claude Gnakpa - this was kindly donated to us by last season's home kit sponsor of our own Wembley goal-scoring winner; and
• First team - this season's home shirt signed by the first team squad.

The Ed shirt is now available on e-bay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110503102227 and will be available until just after 10pm this Friday so start getting your bids in and help us get towards our goal of sponsoring our U15's who have already won one European tournament this season.

Finally, I am pleased to confirm that this coming Saturday there will be a Members Meeting. This will be held at The Conservative Club in Beech Hill and will start around 1pm and being only a short walk from the ground is handy to meet up pre-match, have a few drinks and get the latest views of Loyal Luton.

Cheers

Kev

Kevin Lennon

Chairman