Herefordshire | Archive | 2005 | October | 20
From the archive, first published Thursday 20th Oct 2005.
MONDAY evening I had the pleasure of attending the Herefordshire Corporate Performance Awards function to honour those companies in the county who have shown outstanding business acumen over the past four years.
Along with other directors from the club in attendance, we were delighted to receive the third award in the medium-sized company category.
I have received many awards over my career in football but never before have I been part of a club that has been recognised for its business efficiency.
After years of substantial losses, the club has been turned into one that now operates within its means and, although a debt in excess of £1million is owed to developers, we are convinced that it will be met by the mutually acceptable development of Edgar Street.
In the meantime we have extended and refurbished the dressing room area and very shortly work will begin on updating the floodlights to bring them up to the required standard for admittance to the Football League. An expensive task but nonetheless necessary if the club is to make progress.
The financial position of the club has now been stabilised following two good seasons on the pitch but it has been extremely hard work with some desperate times in the not too distant past.
There have been times when we have not had the money to pay the players' wages but come pay-day we have always had something turn up to get us out of trouble. Some of the money-raising exploits will, I'm sure, make interesting reading if and when I decide to write a book.
It was at one time, however, touch and go whether we would survive. We were so desperate at one stage that Joan Fennessy and myself sought guidance from our insolvency practitioner who was running the CVA which the club had entered in the mid-nineties.
We had reached the stage where we could no longer go on making personal sacrifices in order to keep the club alive, so we sought advice on putting the club into full administration.
The implications of that action would have had a big impact but fortunately once again something turned up to keep us going.
I have to admit to learning the chairman's part of the job as I went along. The club has moved a long way since that desperate day with the insolvency expert, thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people.
Talks are continuing with the developers and council concerning both our leases and the ground development and, in the meantime, it is now the manager's job to get us back into the Football League.
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