CHAIRMAN'S NOTES: PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally delivers his set of notes for the Player of the Year awards night

As another highly eventful and positive season draws to its conclusion, I am delighted that the club has once again made great progress this year, occupying a top-six slot for the vast majority of the campaign and achieving a likely improvement on our league placing for the fifth-consecutive year.

My thanks go out to our manager Justin Edinburgh for the way he has kept up a strong promotion push with an exciting brand of football. I’d also like to thank the entire playing, coaching and support staff here at the club for their contributions throughout the campaign that we’ll be celebrating this evening; the backroom staff who work so hard to maintain income streams and challenge costs, and of course to you all, our faithful and loyal supporters, who we rely on giving us the support required to keep the club moving forward.

I also take great pride and am delighted with the ever-growing role the Club continues to play within the community both at home and abroad.

At home, our Community Sports and Education Foundation (The Gillingham Community Trust) is rapidly expanding its reach across Kent by delivering numerous projects and programmes aimed at improving the health, education, employment opportunities and social inclusion of a wide range of individuals and groups of all ages and ability. Demand continues to increase for the services offered by our Trust so an exciting future lies ahead for this important strand of the football club.

Abroad the club’s official charity, Take Heart Mercy Mission, continues to go from strength to strength in its efforts to assist those less fortunate than ourselves in Sri Lanka. In addition to having a football team that we can be immensely proud of, the work that those involved in the charity do remains a constant source of inspiration.  

As ever, I’d like to thank title sponsor MEMS once again for their continued support of the club, and we look forward to maintaining our fruitful relationship with them for many years to come.

Paul D.P. Scally
Chairman

* These notes originally appeared in the Player of the Year awards night programme.