Trust Ade – 8 - 11 09 2009 – So what where you doing 8 years ago today?

 Trust Ade – 8 - 11 09 2009 – So what where you doing 8 years ago today?

It’s hard to believe that it was eight years ago today (as I write) that the awful news of the events of the terror attacks on America were starting to come through. I remember being at work in Church Stretton and was travelling over to the company’s other site, when the radio described that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. The rest as they say is history.

I went to a football match that night. Newtown I think were playing TNS. The attention in the social club wasn’t really on the football, but the shocking images of planes careering into ‘skyscrappers’. I still find it unbelievable even today.

Town at that time were close to the top of League Two. In a season that would provide disappointment with a play off near miss, the era saw messers Jemson and Rodgers in full pomp.

It was also about this time that I used to go and watch the Shrewsbury Town Women’s Team. It was a bit of a Sunday afternoon ritual turning up at the Wakeman School fields to discuss the events of watching Town, the night before and so on. Town’s Ladies were very ambitious then, and seemingly always pushing for promotion to the National Leagues. Alas, they never quite made it.

Watching the England Ladies team the other night get soundly beaten by the very impressive German’s brought back those memories of seeing the ‘Girls in Stripes’ (as Town photo man Matt Ashton penned them). The Town’s Ladies even got to play some matches on the old Gay Meadow, and a couple of hundred attendances were not uncommon.

Unfortunately unlike the England Women’s team that seems to have progressed from being the nearly rans in terms of qualification to Euro finalists (and with the U19’s actually Euro Champions), Town’s women don’t actually exist now. From being a club with a number of teams, Town’s Ladies, with no official affiliation to the STFC proper, merged with TNS to became TNS Shrewsbury Town, and play all their games at Oswestry’s ‘The Venue Stadium’

Now even the ‘Shrewsbury Town’ name has gone. It’s such a shame, and I hope that maybe one day the Trust can look into setting up a new ‘Shrewsbury Town Ladies’ team. I think of the work of people like Alan Brown, Penny Brown of course, and my former Trust colleague Gary Bright, and other unnamed people who got the club off the ground, and helped it to run very successfully.

I remember some absolutely cracking derby games with the Telford United Women’s team. Let’s hope they can be repeated in the future.

I certainly hope that one day the Trust under our ‘community banner’ can maybe re-launch a Shrewsbury Town Women’s Team, especially with the game being so popular.

On the subject of community, we had a very interesting meeting with Judy Crabb and Elaine Loveridge, from the ‘Federation of Stadium Communities’ this week. The ‘FSC’ are a body that helps with relations between residents in areas close to football stadia, and the football clubs involved. They look at getting those communities to use the facilities that football stadia provide, get the clubs involved in the local communities, understanding problems and needs, and aim to work together for the benefit of all.

At Shrewsbury through the Trust, the ‘FSC’ have been instrumental in writing the Club’s Travel’s Plan, and are now looking into other areas, such as local heritage and history, and working with local health agencies such as the PCT (Primary Care Trusts – NHS) to tackle issues such as– i.e. Obesity, healthy eating, STI’s, Men’s Health etc.

One area that really rocked our boat was a Heritage/ History project. As some of you may be aware the Trust are currently looking into a project to help decorate the concourses. The aim being to provide images of Shrewsbury’s past, which is something scribes on some of the message boards have been complaining the Prostar lacks.

One of the ideas is to produce a travelling mobile ‘history box’ with items in it that reflect the time. Items that could be used say to help school children learn about their local area, and community which I believe is part of the Year 5 curriculum. The aim would be that we would take this into schools as part an overall scheme to get the name of Shrewsbury Town more involved in the community.

We as a Trust are very interested in doing this, and fulfilling our ‘community remit’ as a Supporters Trust. The idea is currently being put forward as a project with the aim of gaining external funding. We’ll update you with the progress of this, as soon as we hear anymore news, but the benefits to the Football Club, community and Trust could be many.

Saturday sees the launch of our new Supporters Bus from the Red Barn and The Beacon. This partly replaces the bus that was run from the Inn on the Green. We’ve had good interest and hope that you, the fans will use the service. It costs just £2.50 return and takes you direct to the Prostar. We strongly advise you to book your seat in advance so please contact the Red Barn on 01743 362503 and the Beacon on 01743 344286 to make sure of yours.

Finally Town play Crewe for what seems like the first time in ages tomorrow. I remember in our season in the Conference, Crewe still being in the Championship. In many ways it’s a surprise to see them back at this level, and I personally don’t think it will be a long time before they are back up the Leagues. Although Dario G has gone upstairs, their style of football is still a joy to behold.

Derby games always seem to bring the best out of Town supporters, so there should be a cracking atmosphere at the Prostar tomorrow. Let hope it spurs them onto victory.

In Salop we Trust

Ade Plimmer

Media Officer

shrewsTRUST