Thank you to all who attended the fans forum at St. George's Lane. It's the first time the club has introduced a new manager in this way and judging by the response it was a great success.
At the bottom of this page you will find 11 individual audio files which were recorded at the forum. They have been segmented to facilitate listeners with slow internet connections; each file should be listened to in turn.
Welcome !
Welcome ! : Paul Curtis got things started.
Welcome. Paul Curtis got the forum underway and announced that an initiative to encourage interest from students at the University / College had been tried that very afternoon and the club were considering offering a low price entry scheme to encourage new fans from this source. The half-time penalty competition had attracted 30 entries and other initiatives were being actively followed up. Also WCFC & the WCFCSC (Supporters' Club) were having regular meetings to increase the Club's understanding of the needs of the fans.
WCFC Chairman Dave Boddy then introduced new City boss Richard Dryden to the assembled fans. He explained that Richard had been recommended to him by Kettering Town manager Mark Cooper. He then handed over to the floor to ask any question of the new boss.
Dave Boddy & Richard Dryden
Richard Dryden was warmly welcomed and fielded a range of questions. Here is a brief summary of his answers on:
The boss himself.. He is based in Nottingham. His philosophy is get the ball down and play football recognising that at times you have to adapt your play to suit the conditions and circumstances.
His knowledge of his players.. He had already watched City in their recent games and had begun to really get to know his players at training last Thursday where he had tried to lift morale with a 1.5 hour intense but enjoyable session.
The game against Barrow.. He was full of praise for the effort of the side against Barrow. The team was out on their feet for the last 10 minutes but they dug deep and showed great desire to get a result. They gave everything and he could ask no more than that.
His staff.. He had come across Carl Heeley through a friend of a friend and had initially rung him for some insight into the Club. As it turned out they got on and it seemed ideal to bring Carl in as an assistant. Paul Carty will stay on to provide an extra pair of hands for the moment.
His management experience.. In his three years as assistant to Mark Cooper at Tamworth he had done pretty much everything: assessing the opposition, giving pre-match and half-time team talks and coaching the players. In that period they had never paid a fee for a player!
New Players.. He thought he would be able to bring the new players if needed.
Letting Patrece Liburd go.. He had been realistic over Patrice Liburd who had already been out for a while and was still out for a couple of weeks to come and had brought in a replacement and had to let him go to balance the budget.
Has he got what it takes to succeed.. Richard Dryden backed himself to succeed. He was clearly relishing the opportunity to put to the test the knowledge he has gained working for a range of big name managers and to shape a football team in an attractive and effective style.
City the "sleeping giant".. When setting targets the history of the Worcester City counted for nothing, every club has potential to do well, our future is based on what we do not what we have done in the past. He used Nottingham Forest as an example of that theory.
His immediate targets.. His aim was the play-offs. He was only looking up!
Ground Relocation
On the new ground Dave Boddy said that the key members of the new ground team had visited Forest Green, Telford and Burton Albion on Thursday of this past week to gain further insight into what really worked at these stadia to add knowledge to a design process for the new ground that was moving forward rapidly.
The detailed planning application, which entailed design and numerous supporting studies, was in the process of preparation and would be submitted as soon as possible. The marketing process for the sale of SGL continued and was heading for a conclusion.
Moving experience : Dave Boddy with the ground relocation latest.
The Chairman said that the new stadium would hold 6,000 although this might not all be built in one go. The speed of construction would depend on the timing of available funding and possibly the progress of additional development on the site. The design brief for the architect included a requirement to permit capacity to be expanded to 10,000.
The stadium would take 12 months to construct once planning had been gained. There were no guarantees on the timescale needed to satisfy the planners but we have been working very closely with the planning department to date and were still aiming to play there in 2009/10 season.
At the end of the forum Richard Dryden was asked if he would share one of his stories of the legendary Barry Fry who was his manager at Birmingham City.
On Barry Fry: The boss shares one of his memories.
I'm sure everyone who attended had a really good time. Thank you to Dave Boddy, Paul Curtis & Derek Jones for setting the forum up.
Special thanks must go to Richard Dryden who has had a whirlwind few days to deal with, without the added responsibility of addressing the fans.
I know the fans really appreciated his time and wish him and his staff every success in the months ahead.
Audio Files
Here are the audio files recorded at the forum, each file is roughly 5 minutes long and should be listened to in order.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11