It is six months since, Director Jim McLinden joined the Board. At the time of joining, he shared his initial plans for the club and would now like to reflect on what has been going on since his last update and outline a few other things that are in the pipeline.
The biggest thing that happened in the first couple of months was the appointment of a new management team and the building of a new squad. Peter and his staff have been in position for a few months now and I think the squad that he has pulled together is a competitive one for this division. I am very positive that once they have fully gelled together, they will do well this season.
Initially the idea was to try and have a squad of around twenty, topped up with the young players on professional development contracts. However, the way things have panned out with injuries and opportunities we have had to get players in, we have given Peter extra support when he asked for it.
During the League Cup campaign players picked up a lot of injuries and when we only had three subs on the bench at East Kilbride, I knew we had to get some players in. We did not rush it as we wanted to make sure that the players coming in would add to the squad. Overall I feel we have recruited well and assembled a squad capable of achieving what I set out when I joined the board, a return to the Championship.
The younger players within the squad are players that we'd like to develop for the future, so for now we think it is important for them to be playing regular football and with that in mind, we will probably soon be sending them out on loan to pick up more league experience. This will leave us around the 23 player mark, so I don’t think that we are a million miles away from what we set out to do.
We have been back at Palmerston training for a few months now, at least one day a week and I think this has been reflected in how much better we have been at home. The stadium is no longer somewhere that the first team turns up every two weeks, but instead is a home base, that we want to make into a fortress this season.
We are grateful for the continued financial support coming from Barflies and the Tanner Fund, now The 1919 Club, these donations really do help the club’s youth development programme. I was delighted that the Tanner Fund board were happy to sit down with me and listen to what I thought was a way to resurrect, refresh and rebrand the fund. Now with the launch of The 1919 Club, this has become a reality and will enable us to give not just our young boys contracts to develop them, but also extra money into the managers budget. The guys from both The 1919 Club and Barflies are selfless in their commitment to the club and to helping where they can, I think we are lucky to have them around. I would still be very happy to sit down with the Queens Trust, if that is something that they would be open to.
A club like ours should be developing our own young players and the work that Andy Irving and his team at the academy have done over the years has been excellent, people don’t always realise that they are all volunteers, giving up a sizeable chunk of their free time, to fund the academy and help try to develop the next Lyndon Dykes. Now it is time to give them the support they need to really boost that process. We are making some fundamental changes to this department, to improve on what we have. We currently run under 16s, under 18s and reserves but from the beginning of next season (2025/26), we will be offering a full-time scholarship. The scholarship will be offered to players at the end of the under 16’s age group and will give players two years of full-time football training and a college educational qualification. We will also be creating an under 20’s team, which will enter the league to compete against similar clubs to ourselves. At the same time as offering some professional development contracts. Peter Murphy is happy to support this process and is willing to help players with the potential, who might not be ready to walk over the first team white line, the development they need to get them there. As a board, we are very supportive of this and we all believe that this is an essential step forward, to do what I want, the board want and all of you want, to make Queen of the South stronger on all fronts.
In order to achieve that, we will be appointing a full-time academy manager, who will oversee the scholars and the running of the academy as a whole. We believe this will improve youth football in the area and widen the net, that that allows us to bring young talent into the football club that will benefit the first team in the long run. It is a long term process and I know that you will all give it your backing, as I am sure that everyone would like to see local players, developed and given a chance.
Things have been equally as busy off the park.
When I got involved, there were a number of things that I said I would address and I think I have stuck to that. So far, we have made a lot of improvements around the stadium, a lot of things just needed tidied up, cleaned or painted. There were however some infrastructure items we needed to fix.
We have put in a new front row in the main stand to replace the areas that were rotting away, and we have repainted seats. The old seats have all had a fire-retardant paint applied as well, which improves the safety. We have put a new toilet block unit in because the old ones were in a bad state. The youth cabins have had an upgrade, with new showers and other work carried out, in the coming weeks the outside of these will be painted. We have carried out repair work to plumbing systems around the ground, this continues and we have upgraded the press facilities. There has been a family room for players created, so that it is somewhere for them to go on match day. There is a new players lounge, which will be furnished soon. The first team changing rooms are in the process of having a temporary upgrade. We have replaced the broken seats in the BDS Digital stand and have fixed the metal work of the seats. The first team management office has been completely revamped, which provides a better work environment and in turn a positive effect on the pitch. Hopefully supporters will have noticed some positives and can see that we have improved the look and feel of the place.
When we have asked for help from local people, the response has been amazing, there really is a massive community feel to Dumfries and around the football club, which has been a pleasure to witness over the last six months. The guys from Doonhamers chat have been out, rain or shine, putting in many hours to help with weeding, gardening and clearing areas up around Palmerston. They are now working hand in hand with The 1919 Club, to continue to make improvements.
I want the fans to have the best possible experience that we can give them when visiting Palmerston, I know that the lions share of this depends on what happens on the pitch, but it is really important to me that fans have a safe, clean and enjoyable environment, when watching the team. It’s not going to happen overnight, we're just trying to do it bit by bit, we’ve got two or three other things that will be happening over the next month or two and then the plan would be at the end of the season we'll have another couple of capital projects to make a new hospitality area and to improve the changing rooms. These are big projects that will have to be undertaken during shutdown as we cannot do them during the season.
We are trying to create the best environment we can for everyone and that includes players. We want the best facilities to help us attract good players so we'd be looking to replace the changing rooms during the off season, which would again improve player experience, which I've said before in other interviews I think would help to get the best out of every player we've got.
You will also have noticed the improvement in signage around the place, The signage is a work in progress! We have had a meeting with Signcraft one of our sponsors who do a lot of work for us around the ground. We have given them a little project to do which will improve the look of the place as you come in and that should be completed before our next home game against Dumbarton. Hopefully it isn’t too out there, some people have said it reminds them of something by Banksy, I am not so sure, but I do hope that it appeals to younger and older fans alike.
As well as the continued support from local business, we are delighted that some national businesses are also getting involved. Businesses in Dumfries and Galloway have been fantastic and are really supportive of us, let’s not forget that. I now want to try and grow that and get back to where we should be, we have now got to be looking outside the region, as well. The Lloyd Group is a new one for us, it’s a company I have known for a long time, so it’s good to have them on board so that we're competing at a high level in Scottish football.
As well as the sponsorship negotiations, we are still actively working on expanding the Board of Directors. There is one person lined up and there will be announcement in due course on that, I had hoped it would have been a little but sooner, but circumstances out with anyone’s control slowed the process.
I did have another person lined up and we were all due to make an announcement, but unfortunately due to circumstances they are no longer able to join the board, which was dissapointing as he is local to Dumfries and would have been a great addition. So the search goes on but as I said recently in an interview for the match day programme, I think the club is in a good place.
I believe we are communicating well with the fans and we are trying to engage as much as we can, the work Dan Armstrong and Duncan Orr from talking Parrott have done has been fantastic. We are improving things around the club, we have a solid base and we have a balanced budget. So I don't think it is something we need to rush. It is vitally important to get the right people because they're going to be there for the long term, so it’s something we need to get right. I would ask fans to be patient and allow me the time to get what is a massively important task right. I told you when I joined the board that I thought really hard about it, because I didn’t want to let anyone down. I am even more determined to get it right now, because in the last six months, I have seen so much from everyone associated with the club, just how important the club is to them. So please be patient and trust that I will continue to work behind the scenes on this and will be honest and provide updates when I have them.
We have made a lot of progress in the past six months, there are a couple of things I had hoped would have happened but for one reason or another they have not yet taken place. We had hoped to reinstate the Cross Borders Cup, a pre-season game with Carlisle United, but we just could not make it work for this season as there was not enough time to do it justice. We have agreed that it will happen next pre-season, as I think it will be a good occasion for the fans. I have spoken with Tom Paitak, who along with his wife Patty and family owns Carlisle United, they are now starting to bed in there and have made some fantastic changes to the club, they have put a lot of new infrastructure into the place, and they are improving so are going through a transitional period the same as us. We have talked about players etcetera and with both Peter and myself having a great link with Carlisle there is always going to be an opportunity for us there to try and help each other. I am led to believe that Tom Junior has started following our results!
The other thing that I did promise that has not happened yet was a Fans Forum. Due to logistics and everyone being busy we have not managed to get that done. However we are planning to have a fan event soon. Dan Armstrong has a number of other fan events lined up which we will start to announce soon.
We have made a great start and have had some decent crowds and it is important that the fans keep coming back. I think we are going to have a fantastic season; we are going to have ups and downs, but it is important to stick with us through it all. Although, we went into the game on the back of a sticky couple of league results, I did not expect the crowd to drop under 1000 at our last home game. I know the last few season have been tough, but I think this is our time and we all need to be in this together at Palmerston on a Saturday.
I have set a budget for the Manager based on last year’s attendances, but we have been trying to target 1500 to 2000 on a regular basis to increase those funds to enable us to bring in more quality players. I know that times are tough and money is tight but the more people we get through the gates the more we will be able to offer in the January window. Higher attendances will directly affect the January budget, when I hope we can really press on.
So to those fans who have not been for a while for whatever reason, it doesn’t matter what that is, because it is in the past now. I want to appeal for your support now, please come back to Palmerston and give the team your full backing, starting with this Saturday against Dumbarton, come and show everyone what this town is about.
Lastly Everyone at the club would like to say a huge thank you to all our loyal volunteers and supporters. Your continued backing is exceptional, we need more like you and would encourage others to become part of that faithful band, whether it is giving up their time to make a difference around the ground or giving us backing on match day, every one of you will be welcomed with open arms.