October had a bit of everything. Three straight wins took the winning run to six and had us sitting third, then three straight defeats inside a week dropped us to seventh, and a 3-1 win over Coventry United on the last day of the month set us back on our way. It also brought some very sad news, with the passing of Dave Hodges, known to all of us as Grandad. I have written a few words about Dave further down.
October’s Results
The full set:
• Sat 3rd – Loughborough Students (h) – won 3-1
• Tue 6th – Boston Town (h) – won 2-1
• Sat 10th – Rugby Borough (a) – won 2-0
• Sat 17th – Belper Town (h) – lost 1-2
• Mon 19th – Barwell (a) – lost 0-1
• Sat 24th – Boldmere St Michaels (a) – lost 1-2
• Sat 31st – Coventry United (h) – won 3-1
Four wins and three defeats from seven games. Brad Stretton and Jacob Shilton got the goals against Boston, and Luke Softley, Jacob and Eesa Sawyers shared them against Coventry United to end the losing run. The Corby Town game, postponed in September because Corby were playing in the FA Trophy, has been rearranged for Tuesday 3rd November. We have also welcomed Shay Dunn on a youth loan from Coventry City, and I hope he enjoys his time at the Oval.
Ups and Downs: Why This Division Never Sits Still
The volatility of results in this division has been a feature for many years. You can never take a result for granted, because any side can beat any other on their day, and the table bears that out once again.
Look at who beat us. Belper Town are eighth, Boldmere St Michaels ninth, and Barwell seventeenth. Meanwhile we went to Rugby Borough, who sit tenth, and won 2-0, and beat Loughborough Students, who are fourth. As I write, only four points separate fourth place from eleventh, and Belper, Boldmere and Rugby are all level on 26 points. The only side that has looked immune to it so far is Wellingborough Town, unbeaten at the top, and they beat us too.
Our three defeats were a product of that, and of a squad that has been stretched. Aaron Roberts was sent off against Belper and has since served a three-match suspension. By the time Corby came to the Oval in early November, Declan Somel, Caine Elliott and Brad Stretton were all still sidelined, Brad for the long term. Brad scored against Belper, so that is a big loss, and my best wishes go to all three for a quick recovery. You will see medical fees and medical kit appear in the expenditure list this month, which is the cost of injuries showing up in the books.
So what does a run of defeats do to the finances? Very little, and that is entirely by design. The playing budget is set against an average crowd of 400, the worst case, so a bad week on the pitch does not knock the plan off course. What it can do is put people off coming, and that is where you have done the club proud. After three straight defeats, 564 of you still turned up for Coventry United, well above the 400 the budget assumes. Thank you.
Crowds and the Saturday Effect
Last month I complained about a fixture list that gave us nothing but Tuesday nights. October gave us three home Saturdays, and the difference is plain to see.
Our three Saturday games have averaged 624, against 485 for the five midweek games. Boston Town on a Tuesday drew 452, very much in line with the other midweek games. The home league average for the season so far is 537. That is well ahead of the budget, though still some way short of the 700 we are aiming for, so wouldn’t it be great to see a few more of you on a Saturday afternoon before Christmas?
Dave “Grandad” Hodges
On the 30th of October the club announced the passing of Dave Hodges, Grandad to so many of us, after a short illness. Dave was a devoted supporter. He was at home games and away games, he was at youth games at Liberty Way, and when the Town weren’t playing you would very likely find him on the touchline at another local ground, because he simply loved grassroots football. Anyone who spent time in his company will remember his passion and his commitment, and they will certainly remember his sense of humour.
On a personal note, Dave was one of the inspirations for me getting involved in setting up the new club. He came to a few away games with me when Nuneaton Borough was staring into the abyss, and it was obvious that his biggest fear was that the club would fold and not be replaced. I hope he passed feeling that the future is bright.
Our thoughts are with Dave’s family and friends. Rest in peace, Grandad.
New: Nuneaton Town Gift Cards
Just in time for Christmas, we have launched Nuneaton Town gift cards. You choose the amount, buy them online here, and they can be spent on official merchandise in the club shop on matchdays (yes, the pool table). Replica shirts, scarves, hats and souvenirs are all covered, and any balance left on the card can be used on a later visit. The one thing to know is that they can’t be used for match admission or for online merchandise orders.
If you have ever struggled to buy for a fellow supporter, here is your answer. Every pound spent in the shop helps, and merchandise is already having a good season. Sales were £3,595 in October against £762 in October last year, and £12,716 for the season so far, nearly double the £6,834 at this point last year.
Expenditure
Seven games, four of them at home, and five Saturdays in the month meant October’s outgoings were the heaviest of the season so far. They included:
• Playing staff wages
• Playing staff expenses
• Cost of sales on merchandise
• Coaching staff wages
• Stadium hire for the four home fixtures
• Match official fees
• External security staff
• Match balls
• Matchday volunteer expenses
• Medical fees
• Players’ and officials’ food
• Coaching staff expenses
• Medical kit
• Training ground hire
• Hospitality catering
• Player registration costs
• Training kit
Administrative costs included:
• Employers’ liability insurance
• Employers National Insurance
• Subscription to Xero and other IT
• General expenses
• Bank fees
• Transaction fees (Stripe)
Cost of sales was up on September, mostly because of the extra week of playing costs and the two extra home games. Administrative costs were also up, partly because the employers’ liability insurance fell due in the month.
October lost £12,100. Bad news first: last month I said I expected a smaller loss than September’s, and I was wrong. Turnover was £18,304, up £4,660 on September, but cost of sales came to £27,868 and administrative costs to £2,536, and there were no exceptional items.
Why the bigger loss? Two reasons. September had £5,008 of cup money and October had none, because we were out of both cups. And October had five Saturdays. Our players are paid for any week, Saturday to Friday, that has a fixture in it, so a five-Saturday month carries five weeks of playing costs instead of four. Take September’s cup money out and it would have lost about £12,360, so the two months are actually very similar. That is what a month at Step 4 costs without cup income to soften it. For comparison, October last year lost £4,157.
The good news is on the turnstile. Gate receipts and match tickets brought in £10,104 in October, up three quarters on the £5,793 in October last year. That takes the season to date to £21,624 against £18,460 at the same point last season, so having been behind last year at the end of September, we are now ahead. Three home Saturdays will do that. Matchday raffles also had their best month of the season at £1,241, against £667 in October last year, so thank you to everyone buying 50/50 and Golden Goal tickets.
Turnover for the four months is £160,420, against £118,405 at the same point last season, up £42,015 or 35%. Cost of sales is up from £67,814 to £77,594, gross profit up from £50,591 to £82,826, and net profit up from £46,968 to £76,811.
The usual warning applies. Almost all of that profit is the £92,858 of Income in Advance we released in July, which is season ticket and sponsorship money for the season we are playing now. The costs it exists to cover are spread across the months in front of us, so expect that year-to-date figure to keep coming down each month between now and the summer. The income comparisons are the useful ones. Sponsorship and advertising stands at £77,862 against £61,807 last year, season tickets at £23,229 against £14,845, and cup money at £11,985 against £5,952.
Cash Position
Cash & Bank, which is everything in our bank accounts plus the cash the club holds, stood at £137,092 at the end of October. That is down £5,961 on the £143,053 we had at the end of September. Of that, £120,000 is in the Surplus Cash Savings Account and £17,092 is in the Co-op Bank business account and held as cash.
You will notice a new name there. Until now I have called the savings account the Back to Nuneaton account, and every month I have had to explain that it holds more than the fund. From now on it is the Surplus Cash Savings Account, which says what it does. It holds the unspent Back to Nuneaton fund, plus our short-term cash reserves, mostly season ticket and sponsorship money that we have banked but not yet needed.
You may be wondering why Cash & Bank only fell by £5,961 when we lost £12,100. The answer is timing. The last of September’s cup money, the Matlock Town gate share and the FA prize money, landed in October, which is why the Accrued Income on the balance sheet has gone from £4,560 to nothing. Accruals, which are costs we have incurred but not yet paid, rose from £9,348 to £14,020, so some of October’s bills are still to come out. We also sold through some of our stock, which came down from £9,361 to £7,424, turning clothing we had already paid for back into cash. Working the other way, we paid some costs in advance, with prepayments up from £8,720 to £12,281, and some of the card takings from the Coventry United game were still on their way to us at the month end. We also earned £628 in interest on the money we hold on deposit.
The Surplus Cash Savings Account went down from £123,850 to £120,000. That is housekeeping again: £4,548 was moved across to the business account on the 30th to cover the running costs. Nothing has left the club.
Elsewhere on the balance sheet, debtors came down from £21,475 to £20,770, and Income in Advance was unchanged at £44,728, which will be released across the rest of the season.
Back to Nuneaton Update
The “Back to Nuneaton” fund stands at £107,613, up £5,646 on the month and now 71.7% of our £150,000 target. That is the best month for the fund this season by a distance, and more than July, August and September put together.
£162 came from supporters making specific donations to the fund, and an estimated £5,484 from the gate at our four home games: £2,310 from Loughborough Students, £394 from Boston Town, £1,538 from Belper Town and £1,242 from Coventry United. For anybody who fancies checking my working, I take the month’s gate receipts and match tickets from the accounts (£10,104, already net of VAT), divide by the 1,334 people who paid at the turnstile across the four games to get an average of £7.57 each, and apply that to the crowd over 400 at each game. The three Saturdays brought in £5,090 of the £5,484, which is the Saturday effect in pounds and pence.
As always, that figure is money specifically earmarked for the Back to Nuneaton project, and it sits in the Surplus Cash Savings Account until the project needs it.
Regarding the progress of the project:
The current council administration has confirmed it does not support Vale View as the preferred site for a community stadium. They cited local residents' concerns about parking and congestion, backed by feedback from WCC Highways. The challenge of meeting the Biodiversity Net Gain requirements should the site be developed was also highlighted.
The councillors are aware that the alternative sites they are considering are outside the boundary of Camphill Pride In Place, which is a potential source of the match funding that organisations such as the Football Foundation require. We will continue to engage constructively with the council to find a solution.
With the project delayed, the fund is likely to sit in the bank for a while yet, so we are looking at a range of high-interest fixed-term savings accounts to make that money work harder in the meantime.
If anyone would like to make a donation to the fund, you can do so here or by emailing finance@nuneatontownfc.co.uk.
What to Expect in November
November is a lighter month, with five fixtures on the list and three of them at the Oval, although one of those is unlikely to be played:
• Tue 3rd – Corby Town (h) – rearranged from 26th September
• Sat 7th – Long Eaton United (a)
• Tue 17th – FC Stratford (h) – Birmingham Senior Cup Second Round – likely to be awarded as a bye
• Sat 21st – Mickleover (a)
• Sat 28th – Carlton Town (h)
FC Stratford have since withdrawn from the United Counties League, so the Birmingham Senior Cup tie is likely to be awarded to us as a bye. That leaves two home games, Corby on a Tuesday night and Carlton Town on Saturday the 28th, so the gate, and the fund, will not get the lift it had in October, and Carlton is the one to circle. On the other side of the ledger, with no fixture in the week of the 17th there is a whole week with no playing costs, and four games to pay for instead of seven. Having got it wrong last month, I will stick my neck out again: another loss in November, but a smaller one than October’s.
Off the pitch, we will be sharing news on the vacant Commercial Manager position. It is a vital role within the club. Sponsorship and advertising has brought in almost half of our turnover so far this season, and every one of those partnerships needs looking after, so getting the right person in matters a great deal.
If you ordered a Christmas shirt, we are still aiming to have them with you for the Basford game on Saturday 19th December, if not before. And if you are stuck for a present, the new gift cards are available here.
How can I help?
There are several ways that fans and local businesses can help support the club:
• Come along to our home fixtures and consider buying a 50/50 draw or Golden Goal ticket on matchdays.
• Join the NTSC 200 Club – support the club financially and win monthly cash prizes: Join the 200 Club
• Join the Nuneaton Town Supporters Co-operative and help shape the future of the club: Join the Supporters Co-operative.
• Local businesses: contact commercial@nuneatontownfc.co.uk to discuss sponsorship opportunities for 2026/27, including player sponsorship.
• Donate to the “Back to Nuneaton” fund: donate here.
