With the play-off race looking very tight, I know the manager will produce the best team he can today against Torquay United and the lads will give everything they've got. If it's good enough we'll get the result we need and the season will finish where we want. It's been a great and exciting season and I'd love it to be extended, but on the day we've just got to see if Lady Luck smiles on us.

Whatever happens today, I'm sure it's going to go to the very last Saturday and will be an exciting climax to the season. There's still 180 minutes of the season to go, there's been many a twist and turn in the season so far and I'm sure that 180 minutes will have a few more.

Torquay have done extremely well as they look to return to the Football League at the first time of asking. They've played football in a positive style and, in the hope that they have as good as assured a play-off place, I'd like to think that they're going to come to the Abbey Stadium and maybe have their attention on matches to come next month rather than this afternoon's game.

Of course this stage of the season always throws up some unexpected results. I don't think anyone saw what happened in our last home match coming, that's why football is the fantastic game that it is. I think the directors of Stafford felt all their Christmases came at once. It's the last visit they're going to have for at least a couple of years to what they see as a 'big' club, they'd been on a bad losing streak, but they came and took the spoils and had an afternoon drinking real ale... it was like was manna from heaven for them!

The beer festival from which that real ale came went really well over the weekend. We had some very hard-working volunteers, particularly Robert Osbourn from CFU who worked tirelessly the entire weekend. We raised a nice bit of money, had a lot of fun along the way, and I'm delighted with everybody's effort and support for the event. It was the second, but not the last beer festival; a lot of people are already talking about pencilling in something for October and possibly making it a twice-yearly event.

The Sporting Dinner took place last week and was great fun. I was delighted with the turnout, we had nearly 200 in the venue and two great speakers and the auction went very well too. Again, it's one of those events where everyone who attended had a good time, the club raised a bit of money and it's added to the profile of the Football Club.

Can I just remind you that our Season Ticket offer runs out on Friday? It's an opportunity to purchase Season Tickets for next season at what will be very attractive rates given that there will definitely be admission price increases next season. The offer has been very well received by our supporters and I am delighted that that's the case. It's an endorsement of what the club has been doing and obviously also of our vision for the future, and I'm genuinely pleased that people are able to get their tickets now and to continue to watch football at what is a very competitive rate for next season.

Our supporters have had a lot of endorsements this year, but they can't be spoken of too highly as far as I'm concerned. It's rarely been easy being a Cambridge United fan - I can testify to 39 years of heartache being a United fan - but this season we've seen one or two little chinks of light. Behind the scenes there are an awful lot of things put in place now that should give us something to build on for the next few years and I look forward to next season with increased optimism.

Thanks for your support.

Philip Law
Chairman

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