With the World Cup now long finished, and the new season just round the corner, we thought this would be a good opportunity to tell you all about the current goings on within the RBA and to also talk a bit about our plans for the year ahead.

Last season we managed to raise £1000 for the club, with £800 going into the Transfer Fund and £200 going towards sponsoring Marcus Gayle's kit. This was a pretty decent return, especially considering the difficulties we faced when trying to raise money, during a time when all wasn't going too well on the pitch.

Now with a committee in place for this season, we hope to find yet more ways to raise money, provide yet more Away-Days, and to ensure that as fans, we are as passionate and as colourful as ever.

Fundraising for this season has indeed already started with new RBA Membership Cards now available. We're also looking to raise some money through merchandise, with RBA pin badges, T-shirts, hoodies and of course scarves all due in sometime this season. At this moment in time we only have the RBA Scarves available, but we will update you as soon as more merchandise becomes available.

We've already started to make plans for the first few Away Days of the season. These have been pencilled in as follows:

• EXETER - 9th Sept
• CAMBRIDGE - 22nd Sept
• OXFORD - 4th Nov
• RUSHDEN & DIAMONDS - 25 Nov
• STEVENAGE - 1st Jan

We'll be taking bookings as soon as we can confirm prices for each of these games.

With everyone holding higher hopes for this season, we do hope that improved performances on the pitch will lead to a better performance for us off it. So here's to a successful season and hopefully we can give back the club an even bigger donation this time next year.