Glenn Pennyfather leads his Clarets side out at Canvey Island this Saturday, kick-off 3:00pm at the Brockwell Stadium, with a new capture in his side after left-winger Takumi Ake joined the club subject to international clearance.

Ake, affectionately known as ‘Tako’ within the team, is a 26-year-old winger who selected Chelmsford ahead of a number of other offers. He spent last season with Newport County and played a part in their Conference South title-winning season having spent time previously with Hendon and student-based club Team Bath.

Paperwork has been filed to ensure his clearance, having moved across the border, and Pennyfather is glad to include another player of Takumi’s quality, claiming: “He’s won the Blue Square South already with Newport and he was already very good when he was at Team Bath. He’s got an excellent work rate, can generate assists and hopefully get on the score sheet himself a few times. Tako is an excellent acquisition for our club.”

The Japanese wide man was originally at Hendon in the Ryman League but moved to Team Bath in conjunction with his university studies. He joined County last year and showed promise at the very start of the campaign but suffered a freak injury which ruled him out for most of the season. However, he showed determination to recover and showed what he was capable of during Newport’s final games.

He will be involved at Canvey this weekend, Chelmsford’s final pre-season friendly before the competitive Blue Square Bet South campaign gets underway seven days later. “I’ve got a lot of old friends there as I spent a lot of time at Canvey during a period when we had a lot of success,” Glenn added. “We’ll be selecting a strong side again although there a few people with minor knocks who won’t be risked unless they’re 100% fit.”

So You Think You Can Manage? Following the success of Ken Carr’s World Cup Competition, one City fan is organising a follow-up, easy-to-manage Premier League equivalent for this season where you can pit your wits against fellow Clarets and raise extra funds for the Roll-On-Roll-Off (RORO) Terrace Fund.

Using www.fsports.co.uk as the provider, which is free to use, David Driver is suggesting a one-off payment of £20 to join the party and he aims to attract at least 50 entrants to raise maximum revenue for City’s ground improvements. Providing sufficient interest is generated, he predicts the first prize will be £250, with the runner-up scooping £150 and £100 for third place, meaning the fund would benefit from the remaining £500.

The total funds will be split 50/50 depending on whether there are more or less entrants and the closing date is Saturday 14th August at 12:30pm, prior to City’s opener against Basingstoke Town. Up to that time you may change your line-up as you wish and there will then be two transfer windows during the season with a maximum of six transfers each. There are no budgets but you can only select one player from each team.

Alan Brown at the club office has agreed to collect the payments placed in an envelope, marked for his attention, with a slip of paper inside including the entrant’s name and address, as well as the cheque or cash. Payments must be made by Monday 16th August (the home game against Woking) and anyone interested is asked to E-Mail David on dld20@hotmail.co.uk for league details and the code to register on fsports.co.uk.