Welshpool Town on the brink

Technogroup Welshpool could be facing its final days as a football club amidst a financial crisis which could put them out of business before the end of the season.

 

The club faced an embarrassing situation this week when the winner of its fund raising lottery saw her cheque bounce and, while that appears to have been down to a genuine clerical error with the cheque now honoured, it has brought to light the precarious situation that the club faces as it teeters on the edge of extinction.

 

Mywelshpool has been told that a supporter has underwritten the players’ salaries for the next two matches against Penrhyncoch on Saturday and Guilsfield on Tuesday, but unless outstanding sponsorship money is forthcoming from main sponsor Technogroup, the coffers will run dry by the following weekend.

 

“I take responsibility for the bounced cheque,” said club secretary Liam Pritchard. “It was a genuine error because I had not transferred the money in time from the club account to the social account but that has now been rectified and I apologise.

 

“However the club is in a very precarious position. I have made it perfectly clear to the sponsor that the consequence of them not authorising the money due to us would be that we will fail to pay players wages and will therefore be unable to complete our fixtures for the season.
 
“As things stand, we have the money in place to pay the wages for Penrhyncoch and then Guilsfield on Tuesday night, thanks to a donation by a supporter, but we cannot keep asking people to put their hands in their own pockets to bail us out.”

 

It has been the season from hell for the once mighty Lilywhites. Graham Evans, Mike Barton and currently Chris Herbert have all been in charge while lead officials have also come and gone. The club remains without a chairman and Pritchard himself stands down at the end of the season.

 

Relegation to Mid Wales football for the first time since 1990 seems a certainty after a string of administrational glitches saw points deducted, leaving them adrift at the foot of the Huws Gray Alliance.

 

On a brighter note, the reserve team, which is full of local players, has enjoyed a strong season with promotion to Division One of the Amateur League so there could be the option of the first team folding and the club regrouping at the bottom of the pyramid system next season.