It was just after the lockdown had finished when I got the call about the PayPal prize…I wasn’t’ sure what to think at the time – I thought it was someone playing a trick on me!
It was a big surprise for us and the money has been a massive help in our goal of getting our teams in the same kits.
When I took over as secretary around three years ago, I had this idea that all our teams should wear the same kits.
We’ve often had different sponsors on different kits so we just wanted to get everyone in the same match and training kit.
We wear red and white shirts with black shorts and I’ve just placed the order for the new kits and they’re due soon, so we’ll be buzzing when we get them.
As a club, we’ve been going since about 1995, as a junior football club and it started just to get the local kids to play football in the Ripon Street area of Preston.
I first got involved with the club because my son used to play for one of the teams and when one of the coaches left, someone had to take the team on.
I was with that team from when they were U7s through to U16s and then I took on the secretary role about three years ago so I’ve been with the club for just over ten years now.
And Matchday has made things much easier, both for parents and for coaches, mainly just to pay the subs.
It saves our coaches having to collect the money on a matchday, because before, if you missed that money, you’d never know where it’d gone or who owed what.
We started using it last season, we’ve got about 60 or 70 per cent of our players on it now, so it’s something I’d recommend to any junior or grassroots club.
