Ambitious Ashford set to unveil stadium plans

AMBITIOUS Ryman League Division One South club Ashford Town begin the search for a new assistant manager following the resignation of Rob Udberg.

Udberg, who followed boss Steve Lovell from Sittingbourne during last season, has left the club due to academic commitments and the club are currently searching for a replacement.

Lovell told www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk :"He is coming up to an important time in his degree now so he wouldn’t have been able to do as much as he had been doing, so I will be looking around to see who we can get in to replace him."

All at Ashford Town would like to thank Rob for all his hard work and wish him all the best for the future.

The legendary Tommy Docherty and son Mick were the guest speakers at The Homelands on Friday night as a 145 strong audience were entertained at Ashford Town Football Club’s Sportsmans Dinner.

The former Manchester United and Chelsea manager, universally known as ’The Doc’, relayed humorous anecdotes from his football days to the appreciative crowd whilst Mick, still in the game as a coach at Huddersfield Town, talked about his encounters in football alongside Jimmy Greaves and Brian Clough.

The evening was hosted by comedian Mike Pugh and included an impromptu game of bingo, raffle and auction of great sporting memorabilia. A picture of Pele and Mohammed Ali embracing, singed by the Brazilian striker, attracted the highest bids and finally went for £500.

Gesture of the night came from Steve from PK commercial Tyres. The winner of the £200 bingo jackpot asked the money to be donated back to the club and invested in the youth development system at Ashford Town.

The fantastic gesture prompted manager Lovell to take over the microphone and thank Steve for his generosity.

He said: "I have not been at the club for long but already I have seen many gestures like this and just shows what a great club this is. We have a great youth setup that will only get better, and Steve’s generosity is simply fantastic."

As the guests tucked into a superbly created three-course-meal the entertainment continued to flow, none more entertaining than the operatic trio known as ‘The Chef Factor’. Duping the crowd into thinking they were a French head chef, Italian head waiter and a random diner on one of the tables, the trio started off as hopeless singers before breaking into incredible renditions of opera classics before leaving the stage to a standing ovation.

Just before they exited the applause they revealed they were actually Simon from Halifax, Jonathon from Birmingham and Cheryl from Newcastle.

The evening also gave the club the chance to showcase their plans for a Homelands Sports Village, the redevelopment of the Homelands to create two new all-weather sports pitches, full size grass pitch, indoor four court tennis centre, golf club, fitness centre, office complex, budget hotel amongst many more features that everyone in Ashford can enjoy.

Joint club owner Don Crosbie was delighted with how the evening went and hoped that it showed that Ashford Town Football Club could be an entertaining place to visit.

Mr Crosbie said: "It’s important to keep this impetus going now. Tonight was just one example of what this club is all about. We want people to come here and enjoy themselves, whether it be at functions like this or watching the football.

"The future of this club is bright and we want everyone in Ashford to be a part of it."

The next Sportsman's Dinner at The Homelands will be held on the 26th September and a press conference is being planned for the last week in June to reveal full plans of the Homelands development to the press.

Article courtesy of www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk