Create a brand new school football pitch

Thanks to your support and encouragement, we will officially open our new home ground on Saturday 2nd November. Confirmed so far; - Two men's XI matches at 12pm and 2pm - Youth tournament run by our youth partner club Brixistane FC from 3pm - Match programmes and merchandise available to buy from our new MegaShed - Cash prize bingo game with up to £100 to be won - Harper Performance stall publicising the work they are doing to build football infrastructure in East Africa - Friends of Gipsy Hill stall promoting their work to raise the profile of the local area We are working on getting a few more stalls to sign up, creating a mini marketplace in a dedicated area on the playing field. If you, or someone you know, would like a free market stall to promote your business, please let me know. There are limited spaces but they are free to anyone who would like one. Raising awareness is incredibly important now. If we can get sufficient guests signed up to our Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/events/2409539799312895/) then we can book in food and drink vendors. To help us do that, please sign up to the event and share the link as widely as you can. We are also keen to hear from anyone who might be able to donate a gazebo and/or spectator seating for the event (e.g. benches or chairs that you no longer use). Lastly, if you're able to help us publicise the event on social media, that would be great. Please share / Retweet our posts on @wanderersafc or share this image from this post. Thank you once more for all of your support and encouragement! Mark

The goals have been erected with huge thanks to several men's team players who helped us put them together. We ran 5 kids coaching sessions during the summer school holidays, which were a great experience for all involved and we loved working with a variety of different children from 7 up to 12. However, there are still several things that need to be done before we can actually host an 11-a-side match. The steps between where we are now and where we want to be are; - Bare patches need to be filled in with grass. We planted some more seed and recently had some rain so we're hoping that there has been some progress. If not, more grass seed will be spread and the patches will need more watering. - Small holes have appeared in one penalty area so we will transport soil to fill these in and pack them down with a tool of some sort... - The netting for the ball-stop netting has been mislaid by the school so, once they have discovered it, we can put the poles up. - We will lay some patio slabs to provide a simple base for where the shed will go. The installation date for the shed is still planned to be 2nd October, so no change there. - Our goal is for the pitch to host its first match on 6th October for Wanderers FC Women v South London WFC Reserves. Keep an eye on social media for more information once we have it!

Hello fans, friends, and family! The latest news about the new football pitch is that the top soil dressing was delivered last Friday and spread out, filling in the hollows and dips, today. There is some soil left to top up any of the newly laid stuff that might sink a little, especially as the hot weather opens up any cracks. The next task is for the grounds repair team to let the seed grow before commencing with weed removal. So we hope for rain and sunshine over the next few weeks and expect to be able to instruct the site team to mark out the pitch in 6-12 weeks time, so, if everything goes to plan, we might be able to kick a ball on the new pitch around the 10th of August! For the club, we will be hoping to work with more local people and organisations to ensure the site can be used to its maximum potential and that the message of Wanderers FC is spread as far and wide as the dressing! We want to recruit more players for the coming season, expand into our areas of provision - our new Legends team plays its first official match this coming Sunday - and create a new fanbase. Your continued support and commitment is truly appreciated.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our crowdfunding campaign - we have achieved our fundraising goal! That means that we can convert a portion of the Virgo Fidelis playing fields into a football pitch. But the great news doesn't stop there... We are now in the overfunding stage and have raised an additional £1200. Plus, a pledge from Virgo Fidelis of £1000 needs to be added to the total... PLUS, a pledge from Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood counciller Stephen Mann, from his ward budget, of a further £1000 should be added later this month... PLUS, we hope to have successfully attracted further investment from the Football Foundation... We have just two weeks left to get up to our stretch target, which will deliver additional facilities to the venue and ensure more people can play in a safe and beautiful environment. If we can ask one last thing from our amazing pledgers before Christmas, it is to share the page one last time and help us be 100% sure we can get to our final total. Lastly, details of the project will continue to be shared here but, if you'd like to follow Wanderers too, please follow us on social media - we are on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as @wanderersafc