MAKING the football club of Braintree Town into a “brand” that everyone can be proud of will help them achieve success on the pitch, according to manager Danny Searle.

The Iron boss was speaking to Braintree fans at a special Meet the Manager evening at Cressing Road where he outlined his vision for the how the club can move forward.

A big part of that is looking at fresh ways to inject money into the club and Searle said a new staff member would starting who would be looking at ways to bring new funding in.

He said: “We want to create a brand that people know and want to be associated with.

“When I say people, I mean businesses.

“I want people to be talking about the club for good reasons and from a commercial perspective, we have a girl who is starting and is going to be helping us to raise some funds and trying to make things better than what it is at the moment from a financial perspective.

“But if you have a friend who has a business, get them on side and involved here at Braintree.

“The bottom line is that money talks.

“I’m not saying from you as fans because you already put your hands in your pockets and pay to come and watch each week, but it’s all about opening our horizons in terms of our contacts.

“I’ve seen a lot of criticism of the board but the reality is that every penny that comes into the club is given to us, to the team and the players.

“It doesn’t go in anyone else’s pocket.

“They have backed me with everything I’ve tried to do so far.

“We don’t have a big-money backer like Billericay or Salford and we have to be economical with the budget because we have to build and make sure we are in a secure place going forwards.

“So money is tight and that why it’s tough when fans stay away because they are hurting their club rather than the people in charge of it.

“That’s the message I want to get out because we need the support.

“I’ve been out to local schools to speak with younger people because we need a network of younger fans that we don’t have at the moment.

“That’s what is going on behind the scenes, but we need your help as supporters.

“We want to create a nice environment for people.”

Meanwhile, the Iron boss said there would be a drive over the summer to encourage volunteers to work alongside staff at the club with carrying out work around Cressing Road.

He added: “What we need to do is make sure that when people walk through the doors they know it is ‘welcome to Braintree’.

“People need to come to us and get a positive experience.

“We want to make the best of the facilities we have and we should take pride in what we have.

“We want you as fans to be part of the journey and we have already talked as staff that we will get people together over the summer to work on the ground.

“We have signed up for this and we want the fans to come in as well.

“I’m not saying you have to but you may be bored one night or may have some time on your hands and you think ‘I know, I’ll go along and do some volunteering at Braintree’.

“We want to make the best of what we have got – put some paint on, clear some bushes out of the way, little things like that.

“It doesn’t take long and many hands make light work.

“I’m not asking anyone to put their hands in their pockets and it doesn’t have to be too much to make this place that little bit more welcoming.”