Chairman's Report January 26th 2016

Since the last report before Christmas there hasn't been a lot of football due to the horrific wet weather we have had. The pitches at Moorhouse Lane have been continually waterlogged and up until last week we have been unable to cut the grass due to the surfaces being so soft. This has resulted in numerous games being cancelled for our adult teams and also our junior sides who haven't played at home now since late November. I have never know the pitches to be as wet !!! Let's hope things improve soon and we can get some football played at Hallen.

The biggest new since Christmas has been the resignation of 1st team manager Steve Winter. He felt he could no longer take the team forward and I thank Steve on behalf of the club, wish him well for the future and hope to still see him at Hallen.

We were quick to act regarding a replacement and decided that 1st team player Tom Collett would be the right man to take over until the end of the season and we can reassess and see where we are at then. Kevin Carmargo has remained as part of the management set up and will assist Tom along with Rayan Wilson who will be coaching the team. It was great to see that we didn't have players moving on and in fact the opposite had happened and we have seen numerous new signings made in recent weeks. I welcome all of the new players to Hallen.

Toms first game in charge against Gillingham saw us unfortunately going down at home but we have just beaten Bitton FC away in the Les Phillips cup and we now play Buckland at home in the next round. It will obviously take s bit of time for Tom to settle into the role but we are confident we have made a good choice.

The Reserves finally got to play and win their cup match against Cadbury Heath and move onto the GFA quarter final. They played this game the following week and defeated Filton Ath and will now play Bitton Reserves in the Semi-Final. Let's hope the next time I report they have made it to the final as it would be great for them and the club. It is great to see some young players now getting their chance and seeing so many of them at training.

Up the Hallen

Chairman's Report December 17th 2015

As we go into Christmas and the New Year it is the poor weather conditions that seem to be winning more than anything else. There have been cancellations on numerous weeks and our reserves have especially been affected not having played for over a month.

Fingers crossed we will see some dry weather to assist playing as much as we can. The clubs current position regarding our future is that we are still in constant talks and working with Almondsbury Parish Council. Many of you will already know that the plan is to build a new building on top of our current main pitch changing rooms which would provide a more practical venue for both the community and the football club.

We are still in the early stages of this idea however and I will keep you updated of any progress in the new year.

November wasn't the greatest of months for the 1st team, picking up only a solitary win at home to Bradford in the league and also exiting the FA Vase at the hands of Moneyfields FC at home.

Fingers crossed results can improve but the next two games against Buckland and top of the table Bristol Manor Farm will be tough. As I have already mentioned, the weather has played havoc with the Reserves fixture but let's hope the coming weeks will see some football and them progress both in the league and the cup completions that they are still involved in.

The Junior Section have now broke up for a short Xmas break but on Sunday 20th Dec they will be all descending on the club for their Xmas party which should be fun. I wish all of our 6 junior teams the very best as they start playing again in the new year.

The club is hosting a Charity Fundraising Golf Day on Friday 20th May at Henbury G.C. It is a joint venture from both the main club and the junior section to fund new goalposts for the juniors and also raise money for St Peters Hospice. It is teams of 4 at £50 per person which includes the golf, with great prizes, bacon rolls in the morning and a meal after. Them there will be a presentation and charity sporting memorabilia auction in the clubhouse.

Contact myself or anyone at the club to enter.

It pleases me to congratulate our club secretary Richard Stokes on his engagement to Amy after his New York proposal.

Also best wishes to player and committee member Graham Joint who turned 30 last week. I would also like to wish our webmaster Ray Bright all the very best wishes from the club after a short stint in hospital.

Finally, on behalf of Hallen AFC I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

To keep updated on anything to do with Hallen AFC please follow @HallenFC and visit the club website hallenfootballclub.co.uk

Up the Hallen

Chairman's Report...........OCTOBER 26th 2015

As we approach the winter months I feel that as a club we should be happy with the progress of our teams since the start of the season.

Before I talk about on field things I would like to inform you all of the clubs current position regarding our future. We are still in constant talks with Almondsbury Parish Council and the club is very hopeful that we can progress and achieve what we think we need to do long term. I will keep you updated.

October has seen the 1st team pick up good wins against Sherborne and Cadbury Heath but losing out to a strong Barnstaple side which leaves us in a respectable mid table position in the Western league.

The month had also seen mixed fortunes in the cup competitions with a very poor performance against Lydney to see us out of the GFA trophy. However a fine win at Bitton beating them 3-2 in the FA Vase has seen us progress to the next round. We will now travel to Devon to play Witheridge on 31st October. Let's hope the travelling supporters are in for a treat !

Whilst talking about the 1st team I would like to give a warm welcome to former Bitton, Almondsbury Town and Cinderford Town manager Paul Weeks who has been brought to the club by Steve Winter as his assistant. This is a great appointment to have someone of Paul's experience involved and I hope he enjoys his time at our club.

The 1st team have a busy November with 7 games to play, let's hope we can get some good wins.

The last month has seen the Reserves make steady progress in the league which has taken them up to 6th place. They have also had two wins in the GFA Cup against Seymour and Clifton SV to put them now in the 3rd round.

It is also great to see top clubman Graham Joint back playing for the Reserves 2 years after his horrific injury. He will be a great help to Butty and Reidy when available although he does work a lot but he doesn't like to talk about it !!

The junior section continues to thrive and anyone who comes to the club on a Sunday will confirm that. It is nice to see the club so busy on Sunday's now both inside and out. The club is also taking 16 of our under 10s on a trip to Manchester and Liverpool to visit the national football museum and Anfield. I'm sure they will have a great time. We are also holding a Ladies Night on Saturday 14th November to raise money for the kids football. The cost is £20 a ticket (which includes 1 x raffle ticket, 1 x welcome glass of Prosecco, 1 x cocktail, 1x jelly shot, and 1 x shot). Also there will be 2 x butlers in the buff & disco.

However, rumours that the butlers will be Luke Mills and Tom Collett may not be true as my sources tell me Beaner and Barry Bucket have expressed an interest.....

To keep updated on anything to do with Hallen AFC please follow @HallenFC and visit the club website hallenfootballclub.co.uk

Up the Hallen

Lee Fairman Chairman

Chairman's Report...........SEPTEMBER 21st 2015

Since my first report at the start of the season the club is now really underway into the 2015/16 season. The 1st team have now played 10 games and sit in a respectable mid table position, which if we would of had a bit of luck along the way could of easily been a lot higher. There has been some good results since the start with us progressing to the next round of the Vase after beating our neighbours Cribbs and also a big win against Clevedon Town with our top scorer Tom Collett scoring 4 goals. His 10 in 10 goal ratio has seen him approach me for a pay rise so I have decided I'm increasing his contracted 3 pints of Thatchers Gold per week to 3 pints and a pot of hot nuts !!

We have lots of football coming up in the next few weeks so and let's hope we can progress further in the FA Vase when we travel to Bitton and also pick up some points in our away league games against Cadbury Heath and Longwell Green which will hopefully see us have some good local support. We also entertain Lydney Town on Tuesday October 13th in the GFA Trophy and fingers crossed we can progress in that competition as well.

The Reserves are now underway and started their season with a couple of great league wins before a couple of losses have made it a 50/50 start. I'm sure that when injuries within the club settle down and they are at their strongest they will be good enough to challenge this year. It's nice to see Josh Morgan back at the club as well after a break away and after breaking his leg playing for us a while back.

The junior section are also well underway and it's fantastic to see so many kids from ages 5 to 10 now wearing a Hallen kit and seeing so much enjoyment on training nights and Sunday's on match days. I would also like to welcome a couple of new coaches to the junior set up, Ashley Bennett from the under 6s and also Lewis Burden who is coaching an additional under 10s team. We now have 120 kids playing for us, nearly all from the nearby villages and communities which is fantastic.

Lastly, I would like to thank the National Grid, based in Hallen who chose our club so they could carry out some community work. They gave up a day and have kindly painted our changing rooms and are also donating some containers to is in the near future.

Up the Hallen

Lee Fairman

Chairman

Update from Chairman..............AUGUST 11th 2015

I would like to wish everyone a warm welcome to Hallen AFC, especially to visitors and all their supporters.

It is a great honour to be taking on the role of Chairman of Hallen AFC. I cannot say this however without mentioning my predecessor Barrie Phillips. Throughout his time as chairman he has put an amazing amount of time and hard work into the club and I hope that whilst I am chairman I can represent Hallen AFC to the best of my ability. I will certainly try.

The start of the new season gives me the chance to update you on the club and what's been happening. It would only be right for me to firstly mention the current situation regarding the clubs future at the Hallen Centre and Moorhouse Lane. As you will all know the closed season brought with it a period of time when we thought we were going to have to leave Hallen and major decisions regarding the club were going to have to be made. The efforts of so many to help our cause were overwhelming and even though we have already done so I would just like to thank everyone again for all the support.

Four councillors have now felt the need to resign which has given us a position where we are able to talk to the parish council with regards to finding a solution regarding the centre which will hopefully be positive for the football club, the village and all of the community that use it. Although there is still a lot sort out, we are confident that we have a future at Hallen for all of our teams both senior and junior.

I would like to wish our 1st team manager Steve Winter and his assistant Kevin Carmargo all the very best for this year and hope that they can produce a Hallen team that we can be proud of. I can certainly say from what I have seen at pre-season training that lots of hard work has been put in and our pre-season results have been very good, beating the likes of Tiverton Town, Keynsham and Chipping Sodbury. Lets hope we can take it into the season and have a successful campaign.

The same best wishes also go out to Darren Butt and the Reserves who will be starting their season shortly in the Bristol Premier League. Butty has recruited former 1st team captain Mark Reid as his number two and I'm sure Reiders experience will be invaluable. Our junior section is thriving at the club and we are now running teams at under 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s and two teams at under 10s for the coming season. I wish all the coaches and young Hallen stars of the future all the very best for 2015/16.

All the matches are played on Sunday mornings and afternoons and I'm sure all the Hallen kids would love any additional support.

I would like to thank everyone for all the hard work that has been going on recently on the ground. The ground doesn't get to look the way it does without people giving up their free time to cut grass, clean, paint, weed kill, cut trees, erect new nets etc etc.

Thanks to all the members that have again volunteered to serve on our main and junior committees and thanks to Dave Cains for all his hard work in the physio room and to Ray Bright for compiling the match day programme and our fantastic website. I would also like to say special thanks to our groundsman Terry Henderson for once again keeping the playing surfaces fantastic.

Lastly, thanks must go to all our sponsors for 2015/16 for all their help and support and to all the players that will this year choose to play for Hallen AFC.

Up the Hallen

Lee Fairman

Chairman, Hallen AFC