The Club is pleased to announce two further additions to Dave Ormerod's new Board of Directors, with Dave Nessling and Pat McCrossan having agreed to join Simon Rudkins, Tony Cosens and Ormerod himself in steering United to a successful future behind the scenes at the Pilot Field, subject to formal F.A. approval.
Dave Nessling is a Life Member of the Club that he first joined as a player in the mid-1960s, going on to make over 500 appearances in goal for the then Hastings Town in their time as a Sussex County League side, and also serving as Treasurer and Vice-Chairman from around 1978.
He stepped into the role of Chairman in 1988, with Town by then having been elevated to the Southern League, and during his ten years at the helm, the Club won promotion to the Premier Division under Peter Sillett's management, a status that was subsequently maintained by Dean White and Garry Wilson.
Nessling was also a Director of the Southern Football League itself for ten years during that same period, but he left his position at the Pilot Field when Mark Gardiner purchased the Club, and then took up a Director role with Crawley Town, before joining the Management Committee at Priory Lane at a time when Eastbourne Borough were embarking on their rise from the County League ranks to the top flight of non-league football.
Until very recently, he was a Director of the Sussex County Football Association, for whom he still sits on the Management Committee and serves as a Council Member of the Disciplinary Committee. He was only too pleased to accept Ormerod's invitation to rejoin the United Board though, and predicts a bright future for a Club that has always held a special place in his heart.
Pat McCrossan's involvement with United may not date back as far as Nessling's, but there will surely be few more familiar faces, not to mention voices, than his with supporters at the Pilot Field in recent years.
He watched his first game not long after moving to the area in 2001, and started volunteering at the Club in 2006, since when he has served as Chairman of the Supporters' Club, Safety Officer, Supporters' Liaison Officer, and has manned the microphone in the Public Address Box for the last three seasons.
Thirty years of his professional life have been spent in nursing, the last ten in senior management roles specialising in customer care, and he hopes that his skills will lend themselves to improving relations between the Club and supporters for many years to come, and to ensuring a positive matchday experience for all visitors to the Pilot Field.
With his Boardroom team taking shape, Ormerod will now turn his attention to the formation of a new Management Committee, details of which will be confirmed in due course.
Congratulations to all concerned. We now have a very experienced Board who have years of dedicated service to our club and football in general between them.
