FC Clacton have had a bid accepted by NatWest Community Force to turn the waste land in front of the conifers into a floodlit, all weather training facility for our teams to use and we now need lots of votes!

Please go to the NatWest Community Force website by clicking here. 

NatWest received 5800 applications, so they divided the UK up into 158 regions and will give the cash to the three applications in each area with the most votes.

Our area is North Essex/South Suffolk and has us, plus 72 other applications.  So we need to come in the top 3 out of 73 bids!  To vote takes 2 minutes as everyone has to register to avoid multiple voting.  And here is what you need to do to vote:

Click on the link above to go to our bid application.

In top right hand corner, click on 'register'.

Enter your first name, surname, email address, create a password & tick to say you understand t&c's.

An email is sent immediately to you to validate your email address.  Open your mailbox and it will be there straight away.

Click on the email they have sent you and this takes you back to the natwest page.

In very top right corner click on 'log in', then use you email address & password you had provided earlier to log in.

AT THIS POINT SOMETIMES YOU GO STRAIGHT TO OUR BID, BUT SOMETIMES YOU GO TO A HOME PAGE AND MAY HAVE TO SEARCH FOR OUR APPLICATION, IF THAT IS NECESSARY TYPE FC CLACTON IN SEARCH BOX. 

Our application page will come up and vote for us!

After doing so, an information box will appear thanking you for your vote and saying you have two votes left.  You cant use these to vote for us again, but can vote for another application if you want - ideally not in our region!

All the above takes two minutes from start to finish and we need all the votes we can get.  You can vote multiple times but will need to keep registering and use a different email address each time.

Please spread this around friends and family and get us lots of votes!  If we win all our youth teams can train at the Club, while parents use the bar etc and it is also somewhere for us to hold soccer schools etc and somewhere for youngsters to play whilst games are on so balls dont go on pitch!

Closing date for votes is Sunday the 23rd October 2011

Further information on this can be found on our forum by clicking here.

FC Clacton Goalkeeper Paul Rutherford has left The Rush Green Bowl.  The stopper who swept all the player awards in his one and only season at the club last term issued the following statement today (Thursday):

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the supporters, players and everyone involved at FC Clacton for my fantastically enjoyable time at the club.

"Due to Pitty leaving and being followed by Ray and Wayne, who I shared lifts to football with, coupled with recently buying a new house even further away from the club and my girlfriend expecting our first child in October, I wont be returning to play for the club this season.

"It’s with the best interests of my family that 've come to this decision and I hope that everyone can respect that.
I wish the club all the very best in the future and look forward to seeing everyone again, whenever that may be".

FC Clacton favourite Sean Hillier is ready to embrace the challenge that lies ahead in his role as Assistant to new Manager Andy Taylor as a new era begins for the club.

In a statement to the club's website, Sean also gave his endorsement to the appointment of Taylor: "I am really pleased with the announcement made on Sunday.  I have known Beaver for a long time and he will do a great job".

Sean also shared the ethos of Taylor in bringing back the 'feel good factor' to The Bowl: "I will assist him in whatever way possible to make this a success. We both want that feel good factor back at the club which has been missing for a while for whatever reason".

And like Taylor also, there was a strong hope from Sean for the ideal of the make-up of the first-team to be local and young where possible.

"The future will be local and young in the main, but we know that we will need some experience in the mix too.  We want the best Clacton players wanting to play for the club again, so will do everything we can to try and make that happen. 

"I am now really looking forward to this season as I feel very optimistic about the club's future".

We are delighted to announce that Andy Taylor has today been appointed 1st team manager with immediate effect.

Since Thursday we have had 5 applications for the post but only had one person in mind. Beaver has really impressed since taking over as the reserves manager a few weeks ago - even though he has not been in charge for a game yet!

As a player Beaver worked hard, never shirked a challenge but always had a smile on his face and time for supporters. As a manager I am sure the team will follow suit and that is how we want it run.

As a new manager he will need help, so we are very pleased to announce that Sean Hillier will now be assistant manager and Dave Coyle is to return to help him, until off on his travels in October.

These are very exciting times for the Club. We have some very experienced players, a few old faces returning, experienced 1st team regulars who are still young, plus a number of fantastic youngsters pushing for places, who were part of last seasons Ridgeons Youth League winning squad. We urge all supporters old and new - as well as football supporters from all over Clacton who have not been to a game yet - to get behind the new manager, your local team and show your support, starting next week in the home friendly against Heybridge.

Thank you

David & Stephen

Former Clacton Town/FC Clacton player Andy 'Beaver' Taylor (pictured above) has been named as the new Manager of FC Clacton on Sunday evening replacing Steve Pitt who resigned on Thursday to take over the vacant position at Stanway Rovers.

Beaver had been recently named as the new Manager of FC Clacton's Reserves side and upon his evelvation to the first-team he has immediately named Sean Hillier as his assistant. 

Speaking to the FCC website on Sunday evening, Andy told us how the appointment was made at the end of a busy couple of weeks for him.

"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster these last two weeks or so to be honest.

"I was thrilled to bits to be named the Reserves Manager and was getting down to working with that side and then on Thursday after Steve Pitt had resigned, I got a phone call from the club asking to meet them and following that meeting this evening (Sunday), I agreed to be the new Manager". 

Andy's immediate ethos was to bring back 'togetherness' at The Rush Green Bowl, something that many people felt was lacking in 2010/11.  "One of my main objectives is to bring back togetherness to the club and this is a fresh start for the team, the club and its supporters.  We need to be together and bond to get that nice atmosphere back around FCC that I have been lucky enough to experience when I was a player.

"It is a nice family club once together and there is nowhere better to be than at 5pm (if we've won) in the bar mixing with the supporters".

Andy is still based in Stowmarket but works local to the area and is confident that once little things have been sorted out, going forward, this would not be a problem for his management of the team.  He also indicated a return to the ideal of 'Clacton players' for the club.

"The team will be predominently filled with local lads but of course we do not live in the perfect world.  There will no doubt be a player or two based say from Colchester but we want to get it back to how it was a year or so ago with mostly local players.  We want to be bringing local youngsters through into the first-team and those already at the club will stay and be involved.  Sean and I have a meeting with them on Tuesday night before training and we will explain what we want from them then.  I am looking forward very much to moving forward from there and raring to go".

Having formally tendered my resignation in person tonight to Dave Ballard and Steve Andrews, I wish to place on record my sincere thanks to the players, officials and supporters at FC Clacton whose support over the past 15 months has been invaluable.

I also wish to extend individual thanks to Danny and Debbie Coyle, Barry Leatherdale, Karl Fuller, Ossy and Mick and Debbie for all their assistance during my tenure.

Unfortunately an oppurtunity has arisen this week that I didn't forsee, nor did I covet, but has nevertheless presented itself at another football club and after serious consideration given and the blueprint presented to me by that football club, I have decided to accept that football clubs' offer to myself of a two-year contract and their vision for the future.

I have not attempted to put Steve or Dave under any pressure to counter the package I have been offered and have kept them fully informed of my position since a formal approach was made for my services on Monday evening this week.  However, I would stress that I still retain ambitions to return to a higher level of management and ultimately felt that the proposition made to me was too attractive to refuse.

I firmly believe that the new first-team manager can build on the solid base that the club has built since promotion and continue to consolidate at Ridgeons Premier level. 

On a final note, I wish to thank Steve and Dave for the original oppurtunity to manage FC Clacton and ultimately their understanding in this situation and hope that they are afforded the continued support they thoroughly deserve. 

Steve Pitt