DOING this job as a sports reporter covering local clubs and individuals, you really do have an affinity with those you write about.

You get to know the people you're writing about and really care how they get on, sharing the pain of failures, but rejoicing in the triumphs and privileged that you've played a part in getting those messages out to a wider world.

On the Gazette sports desk, we work closely with all the non-league football clubs in our area and one of those I've been delightd to cover over the years has been Stanway Rovers.

When I first transferred on to the desk from news I was assigned to cover Rovers alongside Wivenhoe Town and Tiptree United and I loved trips to the Hawthorns to report on how they fared under the then boss Jimmy McIntyre and his assistant Dan Daly.

There followed years under a number of other managers, including the partnership of Rob Bate and Paul Symes, Steve Downey and Steve Pitt, as the club had years that saw promotion and cup successes.

They were lovely times and the Hawthorns was always somewhere that a warm welcome was assured.

I eventually moved on to cover teams based more in mid-Essex - principally Braintree Town, Witham Town and Halstead Town - and still do, but I was back at Stanway this week and was so glad to be back.

There was such a positive vibe about the place and to see a club like Rovers looking up as they are was a real pleasure.

Terry Spillane has come in as manager this week and I think that's a true statement of intent from the club - they want to move up to step four of the non-league pyramid and feel they have a man at the helm who knows how to engineer that.

I know Lee Fisher, who was briefly Stanway boss at the start of the season, had that same goal in mind and he's a superb manager who was doing a good job, but after his departure three weeks ago, Rovers needed to make a positive appointment.

And I firmly believe that Terry is just that.

It's a shrewd move from the Stanway board and you have to say quite a coup to get him there as I'm sure there would have been a host of Essex clubs who would have welcomed the chance to utilise Terry's abundant experience and a contacts book that can have few rivals.

But it's not just the man in direct charge of the first team; there is an impressive coaching and managerial team around him that underline the statement of intent that the club are making.

Director of football Angelo Harrop and first-team coach Danny Slatter are both people who have seen success with Stanway over the years and add extra layers of talent and desire to drive the club onwards.

It all adds up to show the club mean business and that's really heartening.

I reported on their rise up from Thurlow Nunn League division one, but it has been a shame that the club has been unable to press on further up the pyramid and it's good to see that they have ambitions to do that now.

I don't want to say the club has stagnated over the last few years as there has been plenty of work around the ground developing facilities, but they have been at step five - in the Thurlow Nunn League premier division and now the Essex Senior League - for too long.

There were changes at boardroom level over the summer and the new-look committee should be commended for its positivity in appointing people who have a deep desire to and, more importantly, a real ability to drive them upwards.

They appear to have energised Stanway and, as they are a club who hold a special place in my non-league affections, that really pleases me.

Terry told me that he and the club are desperate to really engage with the local community and to build crowds as they want people to back the project that they have undertaken.

Such positivity should be applauded and I for one will be following the club's - hopefully upward - progress closely.