WE had a meeting with the Football League at the Madejski Stadium on Monday and it looks as though their funding is coming through as usual.
It is quite an uncertain time for youth set-ups at clubs because you never quite know which way it is going to go.
They said that they will start doing the funding on a three-yearly basis rather than annually, and that is good news too.
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Last year we got about £138,000 and that looks like it will be slightly increased this year. That money goes through the whole of the centre of excellence and is vital for us.
Equipment, coaching courses, travel expenditure, mine and Jeremy Newton's wages, you name it the money is used to help meet the costs. It is spread a long way, while the club also put in a bit themselves.
The club have said they will look at that figure this year as well and set a new budget so hopefully they will put some more money in as well.
We are moving from Greendown to St Josephs, where there is a brand new all-weather training surface. That shows we are heading in the right direction.
Almost all of our decisions have already been made for next season but there are one or two things left for us to decide on.
We were supposed to have a lad from Fulham coming down for a trial this weekend but it looks as though he has been offered something by Lincoln and will be taking that up.
It is difficult because we must get 10 players asking for trials each week and we need to find the time to sift through the letters and reply and give them an opportunity. We also only have one or two spaces left.
The under 18s earned a comfortable 1-0 win at Yeovil at the weekend and that was the only game the youth teams had because of the weather.
Ben Joyce got the goal midway through the second half and we have moved up to second in the table now, which is nice to see.
There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance though and you really have to stay on top of young lads to make sure they don't cross it.
I have no room for arrogance but I want all the lads to be as confident as possible.
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