Supporter Fundraising

A number of changes have been made recently as we seek to balance the club’s ambition with the need to manage spending within agreed limits and the financial framework submitted to the National League which the club is required to report against regularly.

In order to accommodate new faces and a new approach during pre-season and to recognise the potential of the current squad, it was agreed to flex the playing budget, the Board had approved an “enhanced budget” to ensure we could retain the group of players we had assembled and get off to a strong start in the league and FA competitions.

With the season now one-third of the way through and the club well placed to compete for a play-off position, we are however facing some difficult financial decisions which had been kept on hold whilst we remained in the FA Cup.

It is not appropriate to maintain the current level of expenditure to the playing squad and management team without more certainty over new investment and funding, so several immediate actions have been taken to manage the size and the cost of the squad.

Whilst Sam Cox remains available for transfer, he will be re-integrated into the first team squad and two further players have been made available for transfer, to help ensure we can move back towards an agreed weekly spend level.

We are continuing to explore options to ensure that the impact on Bobby and his management team’s squad is limited and the Chairman and a number of Directors will be holding a supporters fundraising meeting on Thursday 15th November in the Executive Lounge at 7.30pm. Chairman Peter Marsden says "given that we are a club in an excellent geographical location with gates of around the 1,000 mark and riding high in National League South we need to match our progress on the pitch with investment off the pitch by all those who have a deep affection for our famous old club - be they directors, supporters or local businesses. Whilst we have already made a fair amount of progress in generating outside income, we are in my opinion still some way short of our true potential, we are at the proverbial crossroads."

It would be great to see as many of you attend as possible as we discuss ways to support the current excellent progress of the team.