The newly elected chairman of Porthleven FC Robert Hichens has written a club statement updating fans on matters at the club.

The Gala Parc side who are in their 125th year as a club resigned from the South West Peninsula League earlier this campaign.

In a statement, he said: "A few months back Porthleven had a troubled time off the pitch behind closed doors, I do not wish to bring this into the future of Gala Parc moving forward what I can say is the actions that created the news to come out that the first team had to be withdrawn from the South West Peninsula League has now allowed the club to have a great reset and to start again.

"I would like to say a big thank you from all at Gala Parc for all that Simon Bew the outgoing Chairman did for our club over the last three years, he was left with a club in some financial difficulties and worked very hard with his committee to leave us in a massively different position, making my job a lot easier in that respect.

 

"I had been working over the last two years to bring some youth teams to Porthleven, my first being Jamie Webb's under 18s and now this year we have an under-eights team in the Kernow youth league named sharks, I had achieved all this with Graham Blake as the first team manager at the time as we both had a belief that for the club to be successful in the future we need a good youth set up and it was also both our beliefs that we wanted to include the community more at the club. so we managed to secure the school pitches at Porthleven school so that we can now have two 5 v 5 teams and one 9 v 9 team. So we hope next year we can add those teams with the view that they will move to Gala Parc to play 11 v 11 games. Our Sharks are managed by Martyn Webbster and our first team manager Liam Chapman. Graham blake is also a big part of the youth set-up working with both of the managers.

"We decided to bring Liam Chapman in after he had done so well with his old club Ruan Minor and winning many trophies with them, He originally came in to be a manager with Lee Atkins who has since decided to step aside with his son Ross not playing any football and having a break himself. We have to thank lee because the seconds were struggling until he arrived from mullion and he managed to secure us a position in the St Piran league and possibly had we not been struck with a pandemic they may have well won the league that year, so from all at Gala Parc we say a massive thank you to Lee, who has also said he will still help me with anything I need at the club.

"Liam has been busy getting players in over the last few weeks and already making big steps in that, the thing I enjoyed the most in our cup game was seeing so many Porthleven, homegrown players, on the pitch. Seeing all three Greet brother's on the pitch was amazing to see and Jamie's goal taking us into the next round. The club has a big belief in Liam and we will support him and his team as much as we can.

"We hope next year we will have a second team playing at the club but for now, we focus on Liam and his team. We also have our Flexi league team who play in the dropship Penwith Flexi league and as it stands they are top of that league, this is also full up with old Porthleven players and using some youth players from around Porthleven giving them a chance to play football.

"I want to say a big thank you to the committee who have stayed on to help me in my first ever role as chairman, I have also managed to get Lee Powell back on the committee and we have made Jamie Webb who has been working with his wife Kelly so hard on the pitch and off the pitch to become the clubs DOF he has a lot of respect from the players, coaches and committee members, so we will support Jamie with this role and we look forward to seeing how he helps the club grow with his abundance of enthusiasm towards football and Porthleven football club.

"I have also been in contact with many local businessmen in Porthleven who I have asked to come in on an advisory role to help us generate a good business plan to build on the finances we have at the club in the hope we will be back playing South West Peninsula League in a few years time, we have already managed to get some promising offers of help to grow the club we will manage this with a business plan for the next three years and the vibe at the club is back."

The club still has the support and help of Vidal James and Jan Cowls along with Jill green ensures all of the players are registered to play.

Porthleven's next match in the St Piran League is at home to Mullion on Wednesday, October 20.

One more Port.