BORO ARE GOING UP!
SIDE CELEBRATE PROMOTION AFTER PLAY-OFF FINAL WIN
FANTASTIC Farnborough achieved a dramatic return to Step 2 football and the National League South on Monday with delighted Simon Gardener enthusing, “we’ve achieved promotion the right way”.
At the club for 11 years and chairman for the past eight, the amiable Gardener is revelling in the club’s 2-1 Southern Premier South play-off victory at Hayes & Yeading and is proud of the fact Boro are debt-free and self-sufficient.
Although manager Spencer Day has put together a star-studded squad, including the likes of Ricky Holmes and Monday’s match-winner Sam Deering, Gardener insisted the club have spent money in a sustainable way.
“I really am thrilled,” he said after a triumphant day in west London.
“I really wanted us to do it, not for myself, but for the club, the players and the supporters. It’s now 11 years I’ve been at Farnborough and when I became chairman eight years ago I sat down and said to supporters ‘we will get there, but just give us time, we’ve got to do it in the right way.’
“And we have. We are debt-free, we are self-sufficient and run properly.
“We don’t need big investors to come in. We have owner Rob Prince and he has worked miracles.
“We are not relying on anyone coming in to help. There’s been previous owners before who have bankrolled the club.
“Rob is heavily invested, but we do things the right way. He’s not going to throw bundles of money at it but at the same time the way we are structured, with the income and the outgoings, we don’t need big bundles thrown at it.
“It’s testament to him, and the club and the volunteers. We can’t thank everyone involved enough.”
Gardener is mostly pleased for the fans and he added: “The supporters have got their reward. They have stuck by us.
“We have had good seasons and bad seasons. We had two seasons voided. In the end, to see all our boys and the supporters turn out like they did. What a day.”
He praised Day too and added: “Spencer set up a game-plan and it worked. People have commented on Spencer before saying he’s not really been that in-depth with his tactics and stuff like that.
“I can honestly say this now – he knows every single thing about the players. He probably knows what they are eating for breakfast. That is how much he goes in-depth.
“I will go on record now and say Hayes, in my opinion, were the best footballing side in the league. We knew they were definitely not going to be easy to beat. They are a great side with some fantastic players.
“But Spencer had a plan that came off. He’s got us there. And as I say, we have done it the right way.
“Some of the clubs that have been promoted, they’ve had an influx of money and when that money disappears and the money man goes they get relegated again.
“We are not saying we will set the National League South alight, but I know we are going to compete with a lot of teams in there.
“And it’s where the club belongs. The stadium is fantastic and all of the players have said they don’t want to go. It’s a togetherness. Two months ago they were saying to me ‘I want to sign a contract, I don’t want to go anywhere else.’
“It was fantastic to hear. I had to say to them, ‘look we’ve got a couple of months left, the job is not done, wait until the job is done and the final ball is kicked and then we can sit down.’
“I asked them to trust us because we do want them to stay. They have been patient. Now we can sit down and plan the future.”