ALDERSHOT Town Football Club’s accounts, for the year ending June 30, 2018, show an annual trading loss of £356,000, taking the club’s total deficit to £768,000.

These figures cover the 2017-18 season, in which Gary Waddock’s team reached the Vanarama National League play-offs for the second consecutive season, and attracted an average attendance of 2,429 – their highest for six years.

It was also a period in which supporters donated £41,870 to the 500 Club scheme launched to boost Waddock’s transfer budget and help push the club toward promotion back to the Football League. That bid ended in failure after The Shots had remained in the hunt for automatic promotion until the final two months of the campaign.

The value of creditors in the year ending June 2018 increased by £82,000 to £764,820. While much of this deficit lies in loans from club directors – with external debt totalling £324,556 – it will nonetheless raise serious questions about the club’s long-term future.

Chairman Shahid Azeem has frequently spoken of his desire to make the club a sustainable and ultimately profitable venture – with plans unveiled in March 2018 for the redevelopment of the EBB Stadium to create new sources of income in addition to matchday revenue – but these accounts speak of a darker reality.

The loss is more than double that incurred in the 2016-17 season, the first of Waddock’s second spell in charge in which the team reached the play-off semi-finals, which totalled £116,769.

The rise in club employees, from 40 to 63, was largely reflected in the club bringing both its stewarding provision and youth academy in-house, having previously been run by external contractors.

The club’s struggles in 2018-19 suggest that this deficit will increase in next year’s accounts, given attendances are currently far below the ambitiously-budgeted average of 2,400.

At November’s fans forum, Azeem revealed that more than £300,000 of shares – taking the total issued close to the company’s one million limit – had been bought by club sponsor GlucoRx and an unnamed overseas investor to cover further shortfalls which have necessitated the departure of both assistant manager James Rowe and chief executive Laura Smith.

These trading losses were perhaps anticipated by supporters organisation The Shots Trust, whose chairman Tommy Anderson relinquished his seat on the club’s board of directors in October, stating that “the club’s leadership is woefully lacking” and he had lost confidence “in how the football club is being run and the decisions made day to day”.