The Oxford United Chairman, Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth, wrote the following notes for the programme for the Plymouth Argyle game:
I hope everyone is well and I hope you enjoy a game where we get to test ourselves against the best team in the division so far. I know Plymouth fans are always passionate about their team, so it should be a very good atmosphere and, I hope, a really good game of football.
At home our league form has been very good and that should not be hidden by one poor result at home to Stevenage in the Papa John’s Trophy the last time we played here. We are still in the competition and have a chance of going through, even if that is slim, but that competition is completely different to the league and so far we are unbeaten here and want to keep it that way.
I know Karl changed a lot of players for that game but having last weekend off was a good thing because it meant everyone got some rest after a very intense first two months of the season. I like it that our team chose to come and watch the women play and then attend the Mickey Lewis game on Sunday. That was an important statement of the togetherness that we have here, and I was disappointed that not able to attend. I also want to thank the fans who attended both matches.
Things like that are why we can attract worldwide businesses like MOLA to the club, and I would like to welcome them as our new Family and Community partners. MOLA is growing all around the world and I am sure their streaming services will take off in a big way when they launch in the UK as well. Look at our partners now and we have a real variety. We have local businesses like EB Charging and Polythene UK, as well as global names like IFX, Chaokoh, PUMA and now MOLA. There are other exciting developments which we will announce soon, but we are definitely making commercial progress off the field.
To have MOLA as partners for both our family programme and to help boost our community work is significant as well. You know we spend a lot of time focusing on the team and the games, but if we are to grow as a club we need to do even more work to bring in young fans and make them fans for life. If that can happen to me at my age, then it can definitely happen to children too!
Finally, I want to welcome the new Supporters Panel which has taken a while to get going while the people involved made sure that the structure was right. We listen to all fans, we will continue to work with and talk to OxVox, but having a new panel in place who all love the club and want to make things better for all fans can only be a good thing and there are more good things on the way.
I look forward to talking to them and hopefully they, like you, go home celebrating a home win this afternoon.
Tiger
You can read the full programme online at www.matchdayfix.com/oufc