Message from the Chairman

Here is a message from newly appointed Chairman, Mick Garbi.

Having played at a good standard whilst younger at Wivenhoe Town, Colchester United, Chelmsford City and Braintree Town I chanced upon Long Melford FC in 1998 whilst recovering from a serious knee injury, my friend Shaun Gascoigne was as the club and asked me to go along and train for pre season.

I loved the feeling of the club and stayed the season and getting to know the village and its characters quite well but I still had the hunger to play higher so I moved to the newly formed AFC Sudbury in 1999 and I always thought I would return to Melford but after meeting my future wife and moving to Derby I finished my career with spells at Wirksworth Town, Belper Town and finally Eastwood Town.

A few years after I finished playing I started coaching and completed my UEFA licence whilst at PSV Eindhoven in Holland and then working for Norwich City for 5 years, whilst at Norwich I wanted to coach at local club and where better than Melford. I approached the club mid season and my old team mate Jules Mumford was running the side but they already had enough coaches so I went over to Cornard to work with Chris Tracy and Jack Wignall.

At the end of the season Jules left Melford and Jamie Bradbury took over and Jules recommended me to go work with “Bradders”. Over the 4 years at the club and its man ups and downs we managed to win the Thurlow Nunn Premier Cup and stave off relegation a couple of times and I shared my responsibilities of First team coach with managing and coaching the Under 18 side.

After Covid I decided to expand my horizons and went and coached in Spain for three years returning in 2024 and waiting for a new challenge.

That challenge came after the untimely passing of our Chairman Geoff Thomas in January of this year and although I’ve always been involved in football never so as a chairman but hey what could go wrong?

So my aspirations for going forward are to put the club back at the centre of the village community, we want to support local people and businesses whilst moving the club forward on the pitch after our relegation (subject to confirmation from the FA – Ed) to Thurlow League One this year.

We have restructured the club off the pitch and have a dedicated team in Russell Meekings (Club Secretary) Adam Kemp, Kevin Hurley and of course Life President Richard Kemp who are all pushing in the same direction and look forward to working with Long Melford Community Sports Trust in making the club what it should be a haven for local players.

Off the pitch we are applying to the Football Association and the local council to get some grants to improve the facilities around the pitch which will include better walkways, new pitch fencing and a disability stand with a raised platform for wheelchair users so that supporters feel more welcome at the ground and we will also be lowering admission prices for the new season as well as giving all of the youth players free season tickets to come along and get behind the team they should aspire to play for.

On the pitch we are looking to bounce back at the earliest opportunity and get promotion back to the Thurlow Nunn Premier League so we will be looking at new players for both the first team and the Under 23s and we will also be re introducing an Under 18s side back into the Thurlow Nunn midweek league to produce the local players that will give the club the long term sustainability that it needs.