Ottery St Mary Football Club chairman Mikey Ringer is urging more people to step forward to help with the running of the club.

Speaking from the heart, the Ottery chairman opened up on the need for more to ‘step up to the plate’ to make sure what is a great community facility not only survives, but prospers.

He says: “We really do need more folk to come forward and help in all manner of ways.

“I know it’s not the best of times to be appealing for people, to ‘step up’ as everyone is, most understandably, very concerned about the on-going Coronavirus pandemic.

“So, perhaps it’s not the best time to beating this particular drum, but it certainly needs beating.

“We have a need for help with jobs such as matchday stewarding, to folk to pour tea in the kitchen and many other tasks I between.

“How best do I explain the need? Well, not to put to put too fine a point on it, but it is certainly not the case that you can just rock up, slip some shin pads on and kick a ball about at any level of the game in terms of a football club.

“Oh no, the work that goes on to provide that facility for that very ‘kick-a-bout’ is wholesome, labour intensive and time consuming.

“Just keeping our club going can involve tasks like spending a few hours with a hedge trimmer cutting back bushes around the club grounds to directing cars to parking berths on a matchday.

“It’s not that we don’t have some help – we do, but so much is being done by the few and I’d love to be able to get them more support.”

One issue that still causes serious angst at the club is dogs being allowed to run free across the club grounds.

The chairman says: “It is truly beyond belief when I hear of folk ‘letting their dogs run free’ across the grounds – we have football pitches and those pitches are used by young footballers and that is why we do not invite dogs to run free at Washbrook Meadow and, when I do hear someone say: “Why can’t my dog use the area to exercise”, I do tend to lose faith with the human race!”