Club News: Thank you from Matt and Luke

Photo by George Lewington.

𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒎𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅

When we took over as Chair and Vice Chair in June 2025 we didn’t think either of us expected to deal with what we have over the last 6 months.

In June we were firmly looking forward to a promotion push for our men’s first team, hoping for a ladies first team and growth within our youth section, while doing all the amazing things we do in our community arm of the club.

Let’s catch up ……💙👇🏼

𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝑭𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒍

A few weeks into our tenure we agreed to take on Luke Molloy, his coaches and players to be our new ladies team. Some may think taking on a side of this quality would be easy, structure wise yes, but to run this team we would need to find circa £15k a season. Between the directors and others we managed to get a good slice of this money, testament to Luke & Michael who worked their socks off to get money in.

The ladies have been a fantastic addition to the club, an amazing team that we have all loved to watch, their run in the FA cup was simply stunning, gave us lots of memories but also much needed money to keep the team sustainable.

There are lots of people to thank in getting this off the ground, to many for me to mention here, but if you ever want to watch a game, please pop down and support this group.

𝑴𝒆𝒏’𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎

At the end of last season, we had high hopes for the 25/26 campaign. The group was unsettled in pre season when players decided to go elsewhere, only a few games into the season we lost Steve O’Reilly who decided to stand down, no one worked harder than Steve and I know the whole club was gutted to see him leave. However, we could all see the pressures.

We moved quickly to appoint Jamie and Danny as joint managers, but after 3 months and only 2 points on the board they decided to stand down. Sometimes, despite best intentions it just doesn’t work.

So, halfway through the season we’re bottom of the league. After a meeting with Micky Nathan and Steve O’Reilly we appointed them as joint managers. Only two games in, but a good display against league leaders Winslow and a point at Kempston I feel we’re in safe hands.

We’ve been to training (lucky only to watch), but the players seemed jelled and are putting in the hard yards for us. Steve and Micky have continued to train over Xmas, they trained on the 30th December and will be training again on 1st January.

When the chips are down, we must stick together, I won’t lie it’s been a hard watch at times this season, but we have to stick together. The good times are coming.

Please back the managers and the players.

𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

Again, another really positive area of the club, we have the largest youth section in the area now, we have 45 youth teams and it continues to grow. The youth tournament was another huge success which raised just under £9k. The youth section in general is in a very good place. All fees have been collected and we command a strong position to offer more next season.

We changed our U18 floodlit manager just before the season started, while this caused some short term issues for the club it was the right decision and they currently sit top of their league.

𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚

Our walking football goes from strength to strength, Ian Bateman in particular has led this so well, being supported by the great Pete Bottom. We have male, female walking football and also walking football for those that have Dementia.

To add to this Pete has been working hard on our “Blues Together” groups, monthly breakfast catch up at the Fly-By-Café, trips to away games and pre match drinks in our local pub before home games.

Andrew Maradas continues to spread the word of the “you are enough” campaign, Exeter City, Bury and Chester being the latest clubs to come under the banner and work with their local Minds teams. Andrew also does the various support groups during the week, Men United, S.O.U.L, Chums & Crumbs, Sphere.

𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔

The above is only a small flavour of what we have done this year, we have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure we become even better, 2026 is going to see you, the owners make some big decisions.

If you’re an owner and haven’t received your email about a meeting on the 7th January 2026 then please contact us.

Dunstable is a town of 45k, Houghton Regis 25k and growing, the size of our town deserves to have a football club playing at the highest level of non league, we deserve to have our own ground and be able to offer young people the very best facilities to play in.

We hope to see as many of you as possible at the game on Saturday, owners are welcome to come into the Hub for a meet and greet with directors to discuss projects and answer any questions.

To all our volunteers, supporters, players, coaches and sponsors a HUGE thank you,

Happy New Year and we’ll see you in 2026.

“We’re on the ups”

Matt & Luke