WELCOME to the first Ask Nick! feature of the new season.

Thanks to all those supporters who have submitted questions since the end of the last campaign - a selection of them were put to the Salisbury City boss, who as you will read, has answered them in his usual inimitable way.

As well as putting Nick on the spot this season, we thought we'd throw the floor open to other key Salisbury City personalities such as Tommy Widdrington, Barry Blankley, Aaron Cook, Simon Browne, and Matt Tubbs over the coming months.

Therefore September's questions should be directed to player-coach Tommy Widdrington.

E-mail them to us c/o mike.turner@salisburyjournal.co.uk before noon on Friday, September 14.

The names of all those submitting questions will be entered into a free prize draw with the winner receiving some City goodies.

But back to Nick As you can imagine, many of your questions during the summer weeks focused on Whites' promotion via the play-offs, ground improvements at the Ray Mac, the club's decision to head along the full-time professional route and on Nick's hopes for the season ahead.

As most of these issues have already been dealt with in some depth in the local press, in the club's match day programmes and indeed, on this website, we've gone with the best of the rest over to you Nick!

Early season fixtures/City squad.

Q. Congratulations on a great start to the season. Did you think you'd have a good chance to get some points on the board early doors when you saw the opening couple of fixtures?

A. I thought the way the fixtures came out, it gave us a good chance to put some points on the board. We drew the three other promoted sides away from home and three mid-table sides at home before playing Torquay United, a side that was favoured for promotion.

Q. How difficult will it be having a mixed side of full and part-time players?

A. I thought there may be a few worries, but the character of the lads in the dressing room has made sure there were none.

Q. In the past you have seemed to stick with a winning team - but do the demands of the Blue Square Premier mean you might have to rotate players occasionally?

A. It probably will, though it is difficult to change a successful side if they have played well.

Q. How difficult will it be keeping a big squad happy this season?

A. Impossible I would think! Nobody is happy if they are not playing or part of the main 16, so we are bound to get a few unhappy faces occasionally.

Blue Square/Setanta TV.

Q. Do you know yet how much money the club will receive from the Blue Square/Setanta TV sponsorship packages?

A. It was reported in the press last weekend that all Premier clubs would receive 80k-plus from the league at the season at different times. The TV deal is that the home side featured in live matches receives 5k and the away side 2k.

Q. What do you think about Setanta's planned coverage? Do you mind cameras being in the dressing room and you or Tommy being interviewed live during games?

A. Personally, I hate the idea. But it is the modern way and that is the way we have to go to receive the perks of somebody like Setanta TV.

Q. What do you think Lawrie McMenemy would have said if a TV reporter had shoved a camera in front of his nose midway through an important game?

A. "Hey, bonnie lad, I'll find somewhere to put that for you!"

Q. Paul Parker has tipped us to finish 24th this season. He couldn't even get your name right in a magazine article (Four-Four-Two). Did you give him a kick or something when you played against him? He appears not to like us - he wasn't very complimentary during the Braintree play-off game either.

A. Paul hasn't talked of us very favourably so far, so it will be nice to prove him very wrong!

City reserves.

Q. How important is having a decent reserve league going to be this season? Will their results matter - or will you be using it purely as an outlet to get injured/suspended players back to match fitness and to have a closer look at fringe players?

A. It is important that we win the league this season as promotion will mean a better standard for the reserves. We will use it to keep squad players fit to run 90 minutes and bring on the promising youngsters.

Q. Great decision to promote Simon Browne to the coaching side with the reserves - do you think he is someone who could go on to become a manager in his own right and are there any other current Salisbury players you think might make it as a manager?

A. Simon will be a future manager, but I would not advise him to do it while he can still play. Jon Bass and Matt Robinson both have the knowledge and brain to become managers, if they are daft enough!

The Ray Mac/transport.

Q. What is the current capacity allowed at the Ray Mac? Can it be increased to accommodate visits by the likes of Oxford United?

A. Our capacity is 3,500. This has been set by Health & Safety. Once we have proved that we can handle a big crowd, then they will look at raising the capacity. We reckon the Ray Mac could hold over 5,000.

Q With all the work now going on in the fields around Partridge Way will it affect transport in and out of the ground on match days?

A. Not as much as getting crowds of 3,000-plus each game!

Q. When are we going to get a designated bus service to and from the stadium on match days - especially for midweek matches?

A. Maybe if enough supporters battered the local bus company with calls they may do something about it. But it is always difficult to get enough support to run buses as we have found out in trying to get enough people to run away coaches.

Q. Will the club run supporters' coaches to all the away games this season and not just to the big games?

A. As above. We have not had enough interest for the last two games to make it viable to run an away coach. I expect if we were drawn away against a big side in the cup there would always be enough interest.

Q. What is the club's policy regarding smoking at the stadium on match days? Is there a total ban in the ground or can you still smoke in certain areas of the stands?

A. You can only smoke on the open terrace, not anything enclosed.

Fans' Forum.

What's happened to the fans' forum that was supposed to take place before the start of the season?

A. It's been arranged for Friday, September 14.

10:18am Friday 31st August 2007

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