Reading the Bournemouth Mad site, it states that two seasons ago, "only" 51 supporters signed up to their Player Pledge scheme, but they still managed to raise close to £6000.

This money was ring-fenced and put towards a fund that was set up for the sole purpose of buying players - a little like the new fund that Nick Fryer has set up for this season, the Shots Player Share Ltd.

Of course, we'd recommend that any supporter who is able to joins this scheme - but we here a Stray Shots Towers recognise that not everybody can afford to which is why we've set up the Strays Player Pledge.

The scheme is pretty much run in the same way as the old "Sponsor A Goal" scheme that used to run in the days of the old club where the pledgor commits to paying a given amount of money for any number of events such as: every goal the team scores, the number of points gained, the number of clean sheets or the number of goals scored by a given player (presumably, but not necessarily, their favourite). Better still, if you want to chose to combine some or all of these categories then more will be raised. To make the administration side that much easier, the minimum that can be pledged in each category is 50p.

The pledgor then pays their pledge and to keep on top of things, money is collected at the end of October, the end of January and then at the end of the season. This can be done via our Pay Pal account, post a cheque or hand it to Mike Wray at one of the games and that way, you're not left with a big donation to find in one lump sum.

The money raised will be donated for the sole purpose of going towards helping the Shots Player Share Ltd scheme raise money that will go towards buying players for the club.

An application form is available by emailing us at strayshots@rocketmail.com and this should be completed and returned to the same address.

Given that we've only had seven supporters subscribe to the £5 joining donation so far this close season, we have not set a specific target of numbers that we'd like to join this scheme, however as it is open to EVERYONE - memeber or not, we're hoping that we'll get a few more than seven!

So, even if you can only afford to give 50p at each collection - don't let that stop you and sign up today!

As with the membership scheme - we'll publish a list of supporters who have pledged and if you hit the £15 mark of raised funds - we'll send you one of our car stickers as a "thank you"