An update from Oxford United Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth:
It has been a while since I updated fans but after the excellent win against Plymouth on Saturday I felt it was the right time to try and bring you up to date with what is happening at the club.
Firstly, may I admit that I so wanted to say something last week to try and reassure the supporters, but how to do that without it sounding like the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’! I work so hard with Karl and the coaching, recruitment, analysis and medical teams behind the scenes- everyone is so professional and we were all so frustrated by the results. I want to place on record my thanks to everyone involved for sticking together through what was a difficult run of results. People talk about team bonding but the last few weeks have truly shown what a strong unit we have at this club.
That applies to the fans as well. I know what you were going through and how much you were hurting, so was I, but all I could hear on Saturday was the fans singing and supporting the team. Strangely I truly believe that would have got even louder if we had conceded a goal because I know how much you want this team to succeed.
Please do no think we are getting carried away after one result. Nobody is celebrating just one win.The Southend game was encouraging, Plymouth even more so, but we are still 23rd out of 24 teams and that is nowhere near where we want to be. Our players and coaches will take this performance on to Bristol Rovers and then the next and the next, always with the same attitude and determination.
Off the field we hope to announce a couple of new faces very soon. One is a new member of the board, who we are just waiting for approval for from the EFL. There was an unexpected delay last week, just some paperwork that held things up a little, but it remains a very positive appointment for the club,as does our new Finance Director who we will announce later this week once they have had chance to meet everyone. On a similar note I think a lot of fans know already that Scott Daly and Mark Jarrett will soon be leaving our backroom team to take up roles outside football. They have both worked tirelessly for the club and will remain friends of all of us here; they are welcome back any time. Their replacements will be announced very soon as well.
One other thing I wanted to mention was the 125th Anniversary celebrations at our next home game against Shrewsbury. We have cut prices to just £12.50 because we want as many people here as possible. There are some great names from the club’s past coming to join our celebrations so can I urge everyone to bring friends and family and help make this one of the events of the season.
The Shrewsbury match will be another massive one for this club and we want to create a very special occasion and celebrate all that is good about Oxford United.