Taunton Town battle on despite weather hitting club’s finances

Pic: twitter.com/TauntonTownFC

TAUNTON TOWN chairman Kevin Sturmey says the club are “just keeping our head above water” after the recent bad weather led to a number of home postponements.

The Peacocks have only played four times so far in 2016 and have only hosted four games at their Viridor Stadium since the start of December.

Their last four home games have had to be called off, leaving the Evo-Stik League Southern South & West club £17,000 down.

Chairman Sturmey, who also serves as head groundsman, said: “It’s been a bit of a nightmare since December 22. Every time we seem to have a game, the weather gods come and rain on us.

“The trouble with water is that it will find its natural level and unfortunately the levels we’re getting are unprecedented. I believe we’ve had six to seven inches of rain since December 30 and nothing can cope with that.

“We’re probably £16-17,000 down in our cash flow at the moment. We’re lucky that football is just one facet of our business and we’ve got other income streams.

“We’re just keeping our head above water. Our bank are changing and rebranding and hopefully they’ll be more supportive. We’ve run without an overdraft and that’s very difficult. We need some short term help.

“It’s not just us; Tiverton haven’t played since Boxing Day and it affects all of football. Unfortunately there’s so much money at the top of the game but that doesn’t filter down.”

Chief executive of the Somerset FA, John Pike, added: “In January and February so far we’ve experienced probably at least 50 per cent of the games cancelled most weeks and very often that’s been up to 75-90 per cent of games.”