Portland United
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Portland
United
Portland United FC has made fantastic progress both on and off
the field in recent times and are enjoying another fine season. We
recently caught up with their Chairman Robin Satherley to find out
more about the good work the club has been doing lately.
Involvement
He told us, “I’ve been involved for
fifty years now. I’m obsessed with football
and always have been. I’ve carried out
most roles at the club including being
a player, secretary, assistant manager,
president and chairman. It has been
great to help putting Portland United on
the map again. We’ve had some difficult
times but are really now coming back into
our own.”
Community
“The football club are the main
providers in this area of what I’d call
sport. We have ten youth teams running
beside our two main teams so we’re very
much part of the community on the island.
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We play a very important part in
providing recreation for young people.
Our average gate is 174 which is good
for this level and we’re happy with how
the season has gone as a whole. We’ve got
good support here so the potential is there
to keep progressing.”
Progression
“We’ve had two promotions recently
and are now in 3rd place in the Wessex
Premier League. We’re sixteen games
unbeaten in the league which is a fine
record so things are looking good on
the field. We’re now just looking to take
a breath and reflect on where we’re
going. It’s been a lot of work for people;
our finances are acceptable for the next
league but we’re not paying players at the
moment.
If we went up, the travel distances
would be a lot further so we have to make
sure we have everything in place to make
the step up. We want to move through the
leagues but have to make sure everything
is in place to move forward.”
Success
“I’d say the key to our success has been
the hard work of the committee we have
here. We’ve a team of fifteen and they’ve
done a fantastic job of managing things
behind the scenes. We want to finance
the club from the money we generate; I’m
not saying we aren’t grateful for financial
input and we have some fantastic sponsors
but we need to make sure that the model
we have in place is sustainable.”