In the last 12 hours, some of the comments aimed at our players, staff, and our club have moved from frustration into personal hate and I’m not going to let that go unanswered.

Yesterday’s defeat hurt. It hurt all of us. No one at this football club is pretending otherwise. The performance was not good enough, and we will deal with it directly.

But there is a clear line between criticism and abuse and some people have crossed it.

You can question decisions.
You can challenge performances.
You can expect more and you should.

What you can’t do is attack people with vile, personal comments. That doesn’t make the team play better. It doesn’t move the club forward. It harms individuals, it worries their families, and it damages the community we are trying to build.

At half-time yesterday, we made the decision that we would refund the entry ticket for every supporter who travelled. They deserved that respect. Their commitment is something we are genuinely grateful for, and they deserve to know it was noticed and appreciated.

This club is built on honesty, ambition and togetherness not on tearing each other apart.

We are rebuilding something meaningful here. That journey will have setbacks, and yesterday was one of them. But online hate will not define who we are, or who we become. The majority of our fans are passionate, loyal, and fair and I want to thank you. You are the heartbeat of this club.

We’ll respond where it matters on the pitch.
And we’ll move forward together, with belief, ambition and respect.

A supporter said some things on BBC Radio Sussex last night that are correct and some things that were incorrect, that’s ok. But what he thought prior to the game, as we did, was that yesterday’s team was much stronger, but football always delivers the truth.

Please come on Friday and meet the manager and have your say.

Simon