New director Watson makes survival plea (From Worcester News)

New director Watson makes survival plea

9:00am Tuesday 9th February 2010

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NEW Worcester City director Andrew Watson has called on fellow fans to follow his lead and help the club in its bid for survival.

Watson, a chartered accountant, answered the St George’s Lane outfit’s plea for help and has since been recruited to the board by chairman Anthony Hamp-son.

His acquisition takes the number of directors to five, the minimum required under the terms of the club’s constitution.

A supporter for 20 years, and having seen the club struggle increasingly financially, he felt it was time to act.

“I thought if I don’t get involved now I’ll be kicking myself if I could have done something helpful and the club’s in administration,” he said. ”They were asking for help so I put my head above the parapet in November and I have got actively involved since Christmas.

“I very much want Worcester City to survive and prosper. It would be very sad if it teetered the wrong way, so I’m quite enthusiastic as well.

“Having said that, a directorship of Worcester City is not a two-minute-a-day job, I’m spending quite a lot of time on it.”

He added: “We want enthusiasts on board, I’m sure there are lots of people out there that would want to get involved.

“We need to engender that enthusiasm and belief that Worcester City will survive. I think there’s a future, otherwise I wouldn’t have got involved with it.

“I think we need to work closely with the supporters’ trust and get everybody working in the same direction to encourage people in.

“Since we’ve got more proactive we are getting people that are interested and we need to keep that momentum going.”

Although admittedly not the multi-million pound benefactor the club could certainly do with, the 57-year-old, a season ticket holder for a decade and a member of the supporters’ trust, is committed to the cause.

He is already putting his business background — he was managing director of two bathroom firms before standing down in the summer — to good effect.

“Because I am doing the book-keeping, I’ve saved the club about £7,000 a year already. I’ve been focusing more on that and getting the accounts up to date,” he explained.

Watson is also working on a number of areas to generate much-needed cash for the club — from attracting sponsors to reviving the mascot scheme.

He said: “My son was a mascot when Martyn Bennett was manager (in 1991) and it was quite a big thing. It’s sad we don’t do things like that anymore. I think we need to look at things like that again, it does bring the family in.

“One of the great advantages of having a mascot is that you tend to come to the next few matches.

“I think we should have a small family section. There used to be families in block ‘C’, where I sit, and this season there quite clearly aren’t any at all.”

He added: “We also need to maximise the profit out of the social club and get some more commercial sponsors in. The club hasn’t made any money for a long, long time.”

City chairman Anthony Hampson said: “Andrew will add weight to our deliberations on the footballing side and add a fans’ dimension during our next stage as the club progresses towards a new ground.”