Borough family deserve better leadership

In the past two weeks The News has reported the following facts – a winding-up order served on the club by HMRC for late payment of taxes; players going on Twitter to speculate whether they will be paid on time; a transfer embargo on the club; boss Alex Pike openly talking with AFC Totton about their managerial vacancy; a £40,000 hole in their budget, and Borough being thrown out of the Portsmouth Senior Cup for failing to fulfil a fixture.

The most unedifying aspect, however, has been the response to this coverage by club chairman Mark Hook and manager Alex Pike.

Both went on BBC Radio Solent to criticise The News for making these things public.

Hook accused us of printing ‘lies’ and Pike announced a ban on any member of the club’s staff talking to the paper.

This is in spite of both acknowledging in their sound bites that everything The News had published had been accurate.

Pike is particularly upset that the role of his wife, Jane, has been included in the account of events.

But if you go to Companies House it clearly states that she, along with Hook and her husband, are directors of the club.

Like all directors at a football club, that makes them accountable.

The Borough boss also claims that the first his wife and he knew about the latest winding-up order was when they read about it in the newspaper.

Similarly, the manager has also stated he had no prior knowledge of the Portsmouth Senior Cup tie against the Hawks.

If this is the case then the club has some serious communication problems to sort out.

Attacks against The News continued again last weekend.

In his programme notes ahead of Saturday’s game against Welling, Hook accused us of ‘biased’ reporting and writing ‘dross’.

Pike also launched an astonishing tirade against the The News’ journalists outside the press box in full earshot of the occupants, questioning their professionalism.

And all while the question of whether the manager intends to stay at the club or not remains unresolved.

Nearly two weeks after admitting he was in the frame for the AFC Totton job, a decision is yet to be made.

Sadly, the main losers in all of this are Gosport Borough Football Club, the players, their fantastically-loyal fans and the small group of individuals working on the club’s behalf behind the scenes.

They deserve far better than the leadership they are getting at the present time.