Guillem Balague: Biggleswade on the map in L'Equipe

The French publication, L’Equipe, one of the most famous and prestigious sports publications in the world, were our guests on Tuesday night for our League Challenge Trophy match against Pitstone and Ivingnhoe FC ,

They had originally come to speak to me about a feature they were looking to run on Pep Guardiola but once they heard about our plans for the Academy, our ideas and our ambitious sponsorships deals with the likes of Top Eleven and adidas they were intrigued and they are now also writing a five page article on the club to appear in their magazine.

I always said that bit by bit, slowly but surely, we were going to get there and now suddenly I look around and find a buzz about the place that tells me that I was right. Believe me, the only way is up.

Last Friday we had an Academy day where about 100 parents and players were in attendance for a social night, barbeque and a chance for me and other representatives of the club to meet everyone and to them our plans for the future.

We also had representatives of adidas in attendance offering around a 40% per cent discount on all boots for players at out academy, which currently boast almost 100 players and is growing by the day.

It is worth mentioning here that we are immensely proud to be the only grassroots side sponsored by adidas and their support is much appreciated.

Hats off to Pitstone and Ivinghoe FC, our opponents in Tuesday night’s League Challenge Trophy Match who play two leagues below us and made life very diffiuclt indeed especially in the first half when they took the lead and went in 1--1 at half time.

Coach, Cristian Colas took the opportunity to rotate his side and give some of the players that haven’t had as much playing time as they would like their chance to show him just what they could do.

These type of games are vital for this, not least because it gives everyone the chance to show just what they have learnt in training, how effectively they are putting it into practise, and just how hungry they are to make it into the starting XI.

In the end we won 5-1 but we certainly didn’t have it all our own way but it was good at least to find that we have found our goal-scoring boots and a return to winning ways after conceding a late goal at Tring Athletic last Saturday that meant we came home with just one point instead of three.

It’s the first round of the FA Vase again tomorrow (Saturday) when we welcome Woodbridge Town from division one of the Eastern Counties League, the same league that Whitton United,who we beat 4-0 in the qualifying round, also play in.