A healthy 80-plus members attended last Thursday’s AGM on zoom at which a number of pressing issues were discussed, writes Andrew Warshaw

The Board reported to members how we had to run a mothball budget during the curtailed seasons whilst at the same time having to deal with losing players to National League clubs. Conversely we were protected by a number of grants that arrived from the Football Foundation and other sources.

Turning to this season, chairman Paul Reed admitted that pre-season results didn’t augur well but said there were mitigating circumstances, not least considerable uncertainty in trying to get players signed up.

The mood has rapidly improved during what has been our best ever start to a league campaign, with home attendances up by an average of 70 and the club rarely out the playoff places. The addition of Ian Hart and Tommy Fester to the management team has proved a huge benefit while the gesture of free tickets to NHS workers has been extremely well received.

Decent Cup runs in the FA Cup and FA Trophy allowed some prize money to be re-invested in the playing staff while shirt sales, both nationally and globally, have contributed to a healthy financial situation. In fact we have recorded probably our strongest operation profit to date.

Tribute was paid by Paul to Future’s sponsorship of the youth section while the publicity generated by the NXT UK sponsorship deal now stretches to over 250 news outlets in 40 countries, all great exposure for the club.

Other positives include the growth of the academy, notably Adi Connolly breaking into the first team, our floodlights being upgraded and increased engagement on social media.

What happens next depends largely on where we are at the end of the season but Paul Millington made a detailed presentation on a number of possible options for ground development should we gain promotion, with further talks planned on the most efficient way forward in terms of how to add 100 extra seats in one stand that can  accommodate 250 fans, as well as turnstile additions.

In terms of community shares, the board intend to pay its first interest payment at 2 percent over base rate.

Inevitably several questions related to the future of Mo Faal and Paul Reed conceded that Mo would almost certainly review his options at the end of the season since understandably he still has ambitions to play at a higher level.

Paul revealed that despite pushing and pushing in terms of trying to tie Mo down for longer, he perfectly reasonably only wanted to commit for this season even though he was offered a longer-term contract.

Andy Leese took a break from training to answer members’ questions and revealed how a number of other clubs in our division and even higher had tried to sign Jake Cass. Their loss is our gain!

Andy said preparations for matches was the best he had ever known his time at the club and made a point of thanking supporters for the noise generated both home and away.

A full video recording of the AGM will be available shortly.