I'd like to start by welcoming you to the Abbey Stadium and a specially warm welcome to our regular supporters as well as everyone who has come along with a season ticket holder as part of the 'bring a mate' scheme.

I hope this initiative will bring a combination of some new faces to the Abbey, people who have been occasional fans, and perhaps fans who have fallen by the wayside in recent years. Hopefully they will enjoy the experience and will want to come back for some more. There's going to be some great adventures along the way between now and the end of the season, so it would be good to think some of the people introduced to Cambridge United today will stay with us for the ride.

We also welcome guests in the South Stand from local Colts and Mini Soccer leagues. It's always great when the youngsters come along and fill up that Stand. The enthusiasm you get from them is infectious and I know the players absolutely love it when the South Stand is full.

I'd also like to welcome the directors, supporters and players of Forest Green Rovers, who have made the long trek up from Gloucestershire for today's game. Forest Green are having a great season and are playing some very attractive football. They've got a very good manager in Jim Harvey, under whose leadership they have made great strides this season, so I'm sure we will have quite a challenge this afternoon.

Michael Morrison's decision to sign a new contract was a great fillip for the Football Club. Michael is a player for whom I have huge respect; he's a smashing lad on and off the park and has a great attitude and I know the gaffer rates him very highly. We were all starting to wonder what might happen at the end of the season when he was out of contract, so for him to commit himself and sign a new contract at this stage is terrific. It says an awful lot for Cambridge United, it says a tremendous amount for Jimmy Quinn, and it speaks volumes for Michael and the loyalty that he has shown.

While we were obviously disappointed to lose the services of Scott Rendell, clearly when you've got a striker of Scott's ability and potential you're always going to attract interest from clubs at a higher level. In fairness to Scott, Peterborough came in with a fairly irresistible offer and whilst it's a huge wrench, you can't stand in the lad's way. As Chairman, there's a part of you that's ruing the fact you've had to let your top goal scorer go but, at the same time, everybody can rest assured that it's very good business for Cambridge United and hopefully it will prove to be a good move for the player himself.

As a Football Club, we didn't dictate the timing of Scott's transfer. Although there had been some solid interest from Rochdale, it was with a mixture of relief and slight surprise that we got to the end of the January transfer window with Scott still at the club. It's only in these last few days, with Peterborough's increased interest, that things got to the point where they are now and the deal has had to be done.

Scott didn't cost us any money, he came to us as a young lad with some ability and some potential that was, to some extent, untapped. He's worked closely with the gaffer and has come on in leaps and bounds over the course of the season and a lot of that is obviously down to Jimmy Quinn. As a result of that we've found ourselves with a player who's going to bring in a decent transfer bounty for the Football Club. He's certainly contributed to our success on the park and he's partly responsible for us being third in the Blue Square Premier. I've got nothing but praise for him and wish him well.

Ultimately, it's Jimmy's and Willy's call as to whether we look to replace Scott in the short term. There's no point in rushing out and desperately grasping at players who are not going to bring much improvement to the Football Club. If we do bring anybody else in, they've got to be of the ability to improve the current squad.

The view is that whilst Scott is a loss to the squad as a whole, we still have four good strikers in the club - we've got Lee McEvilly, Mark Beesley, Lee Boylan and young Robbie Willmott - so there's certainly no alarm bells ringing at the club at the minute. But if we do get to a point where either the right player becomes available or Jimmy and Willy do feel that they need to strengthen things there would be no problem with the club supporting them to that end.

Thanks for your support.

Philip Law
Chairman

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