As announced at our members' meeting last night, the coaches to both Gainsborough Trinity and North Ferriby United are definitely running but there is still time to book a seat.

Saturday, 10th February - GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY

Leaves at 10-30am (with usual earlier pick up points) Members £19, Under 16 members, £14 Non-members £24.

Saturday, 17th February - NORTH FERRIBY UNITED

Leaves at 10-30am (with usual earlier pick up points) Members £19, Under 16 members, £14 Non-members £24.

Both coaches are again provided by Vision. Places can be booked by texting Bill Sloan on 07952056385 or through social media.

A reminder that it is against the law to have alcohol on football supporters’ coaches.

Due to the postponement of the match against Telford United, we were unable to take bookings for the coaches for the next two away matches.

To be fair to people who might have to make alternative travel arrangements and to the coach company, we will need to make a decision at our members' meeting on Tuesday as to whether the coach can run.

If you want to travel with us to Gainsborough Trinity could you please let us know by Tuesday by texting Bill Sloan on 07952056385 or by social media.

Similarly, if you wish to travel to North Ferriby the following week please let us know.

Seats are available on the Trust in Yellow coach to Southport’s next two away matches, at Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday February 10 and North Ferriby United on Saturday February 17.

The individual fare for both trips is £19 for members, £14 for under-16 members and £24 for non-members.

Both coaches leave the Merseyrail Community Stadium at 10.30am with earlier pick-up points at the Arion, the Crown and the George.

The coaches are again provided by Vision Travel. Places can be booked in the Trust office at Saturday’s match against Telford United, by texting Bill Sloan on 07952056385 or through social media.

A reminder that it is against the law to have alcohol on football supporters’ coaches.

The coach to Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday is definitely running.

Seats are still available. The coach leaves the Merseyrail Community Stadium at 10.30 am, with earlier pick up points at the Arion, the Crown and the George.

The fare is £17 for members, £14 for under-16 members and £22 for non-members.

Fans who had been booked with us to the match at FC United of Manchestercan travel for £12 for adults and £10 for under-16 members. This is the same prices as we were charging for FC United.

At the latest Trust Board meeting coach trips were discussed in the light of the failure of the coach to arrive for the match at FC United of Manchester.

Whilst this was the first time this has happened over many years the Board still felt it necessary to discuss the best ways to prevent similar occurrences and how we should react if anything like this happened again.

We have been delighted to work with Arthur and Elite Coaches over eleven years and he has given us excellent service for which we are really grateful. Unfortunately he now only has the one coach and felt unable to give guarantees that in unlikely event of another breakdown he would be able to get a replacement coach. He suggested therefore, that we book with alternative companies which have more coaches.

As a result we have booked a coach to Kidderminster Harriers with Vision Coaches.

Again our apologies for the inconvenience caused to people last Sunday.

There will be chance to ask questions about coach travel at the next members’ meeting in February.

A few other points relating to coach hire.

Time of departure of coaches: There are different preferences amongst members as to what time we should arrive at matches. We time our departures to arrive about 90 minutes before kick-off which allows spare time in case there is congestion on the way. We appreciate a few would prefer to arrive earlier but others don’t wish to or indeed to spend large amounts of time at Motorway service stations. As always we aim to create a balance and indeed last Sunday our starting time did allow many of the stranded passengers to reach the match in time by alternative means

Choice of coach companies: Over the last three seasons we have asked for quotes from 13 companies for coaches for the season's matches. Of these only four companies have given us quotes and we have regularly used Elite and Alfa and occasionally Vision. Whilst cost is obviously a major consideration in choosing firms to book with, it is by no means the only reason and such things as flexibility in terms of booking and cancelling coaches at short notice are very important as well

Subsidising coaches: We have run coaches to all but two matches this season. On occasions this has been made possible because of donations from the club (Boston match) or by individuals but on other occasions the Trust has had to cover a loss when the number of bookings has been less than expected (e.g. Chorley match). There are approximately 250 Trust members but only a small proportion use the coach regularly and so it would be unfair to the majority of members to use the money they have helped raised to subsidise all coaches.