Tom Schmidt

He's fast becoming 'towns' talisman! Very strong performance from whole team last night. A pleasure to go up Poltair at the moment!

Great signings like this, and 2-3 local boys back from Truro and Bodmin will be enough to entice a good 50+ more spectators to home games. It works financially as long as they play attractive football and get the results to take the club onto the next level. Good work Lafs and team.

Eco-Team for Eco-Town I have been watching rise of AFC St Austell with interest and would like to congratulate those involved with the club both on and off the pitch for a fantastic achievement. It's great to see the club back on it's feet with the potential of some successful years to come. Well done everyone! I would like to make the point that there is the potential for the club to align itself with the green opportunities within the town to turn the club into a more sustainable and cost efficient club. In these times of financial hardship, especially for small sporting clubs, I'm sure there are local companies, such as The Eden Project and Eco-Bos, who would be willing to offer either sponsorship and/or advice on how to access funding or grants to develop the club. AFC St Austell could become not only the biggest but also the ‘greenest team in the County’. I'm not sure if there are any football clubs nationally that can boast of it's low or neutral carbon footprint. Some ideas to get the ball rolling would be:- • Photovoltaic panels on the south facing grandstand roof for hot water; • Low energy lighting/floodlights; • Wind turbine for clubhouse and floodlight electric; • Ground source geothermal heating for clubhouse and undersoil heating for pitch; • Recycling facilities for club and local area; • Incentives for visiting fans to travel by train or park and ride facilities; • Incentives for home fans to walk/cycle to the club; • Kit/boots developed from naturally occurring materials; • Use of organic eco-friendly fertilisers on the pitch; • Organic food sourced from Cornwall served in the clubhouse; and, • Beer supplied with the lowest transport miles possible (already achieved). Some of these may be just pipedreams or long-term aspirations but you have all the resources and knowledge available locally and the ability to join the eco-revolution due to take place in the area. AFC St Austell could become the Eco-Team for the Eco-Town.