Being a football fan is not always easy, and as a supporter of this football club, I realise that the last few weeks have been a difficult time for everyone connected with Bristol Rovers.

I would like to assure all our supporters that the board of Bristol Rovers Football Club are committed to moving the club in the right direction, both on and off the field.

On the playing side, we have made money available to Paul and Lennie and they have already taken advantage of this by bringing in Jeff Hughes - who looks to be an excellent addition to the squad.

The management duo are also looking at bringing in another couple of players, including a striker, and I feel this will give us a squad capable of challenging for honours in League One. We have been handed a good set of fixtures for the coming season, and it will make a nice change to start the campaign at home.

Many people may have been disappointed to hear that we have withdrawn our reserve team from the Pontin's Holiday League. We at the club do not see this as a backwards step, and believe that by arranging our own regular fixtures against well balanced opposition we will get more out of our reserve players.

We will also be sending a lot of our youngsters out on loan to gain first team match experience which will be hugely beneficial to them.

Away from the field, we were all very disappointed to have to delay the start of the stadium regeneration. Unfortunately, the decision was taken out of our hands by Opal, and we decided that in the best interests of the club's future, a delay was the only option.

Work continues to go on behind the scenes, and our appointment of a full-time Director of Finance in Toni Watola only serves to highlight out dedication to the project.

Everyone here at the Memorial Stadium is working hard to get things ready for the 2008/09 season, but it is only with the help of our loyal fans that we can pull together and move this club in the right direction.

I know things have not been easy over the last few months, and as Chariman, I acknowledge that the club have made a number of mistakes regarding communication. But we are working hard behind the scenes to try and address these, and make sure we are more open with our fans.

Bristol Rovers is a strong club, and we showed during our promotion season, what we can do if we all work together. We have experienced a number of ups and downs over the years, but if we learn from our mistakes, I feel we can come back stronger.

We need our fans behind us when the season starts and I would like to encourage those who have not yet bought a season ticket to consider buying one while the early bird prices are still in place. The Memorial Stadium may not have the best facilities in the world, but it has some of the best fans. If it can be filled with thousands of passionate Gasheads for every match, then I believe we are capable of beating anyone on our day.

I would also like to thank everyone who has responded to our appeal to try and improve the match day experience. We have had a raft of responses, and will be getting to work on implementing some of the suggestions over the coming weeks.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer, and I hope to see you all back here next season.