GORLESTON FC's annual meeting at Emerald Park was held recently.Chairwoman Ann Santon said that having only taken the chairmanship on a temporary basis while the club tried to find a new one, she had completed her year, but due to health reasons felt she would have to stand down.

GORLESTON FC's annual meeting at Emerald Park was held recently.

Chairwoman Ann Santon said that having only taken the chairmanship on a temporary basis while the club tried to find a new one, she had completed her year, but due to health reasons felt she would have to stand down.

She did point out that during the past season all decisions had been made by the committee and this had worked reasonably well. This certainly proved the case when the club staged the biggest match in a very long time, hosting Norwich City at the start of the season.

Tomorrow (Saturday) sees a visit from an Ipswich Town

XI and the club thanks Jimmy Hannant for his sponsorship

of this.

Mick Santon, after seven years, stood down as treasurer and his role has been taken over by Mick Kenmore. Kevin Meale, due to work commitments has stood down as secretary and the club welcomed Martin Gaines in

his place.

Michael Heard, a long-time committee member, stood down but will continue with his match reports.

Special mention was made to David Gall who sponsors player-of-the-month, Maurice and Joan Butler for their help, June and David Cook who have been instrumental in the success of the Sporting Nights and Tony Smith who managed to sort out the accounts.

Best wishes were sent to groundsman John Nichols, who has been poorly for some time now. Congratulations were made to President Jimmy Jones on receiving his MBE.

Ann went on to say that, on a more serious note, with the present financial climate money would be extremely hard to come by, but they would do their best.

Mention was made of the Sailor Brown Memorial Trophy Tournament being held at Emerald Park on July 25. With teams from Lowestoft, Kirkley, Great Yarmouth, Blofield and Gorleston taking part it should be a fun day.

The outgoing secretary than made his report. He said that on the field last season it was can be described as a case of “so close yet so far”.

The first team under managers Jon White and Martyn Sinclair was in contention for promotion right up until the last few weeks of the season but once again just fell short in a very competitive league, they also managed to reach the semi-final of the Norfolk Senior Cup, eventually losing to the winners King's Lynn Reserves.

Looking forward to next season Gorleston have already lost Lee Hunter, Ricci Butler and John Bell, all to Norwich United.

The club has started

pre-season training already and a number of friendlies already arranged, including Dunstable Town on July 18 and the Sailor Brown Tournament on the July 25.

Price of admission will remain the same at �4 for adults and �3 concessions. They have also decided to re-introduce season tickets at �90 for adults and �70 concessions this will include entry to all first, reserve and U18 league games but not cup matches.