Hayes & Yeading United are set to fail in their bid to raise £300,000 by tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) self-imposed deadline but the club will remain in business this week.
Chairman Tony O’Driscoll told concerned supporters in January that he needed to generate the eye-watering figure to stave off the threat of extinction .
The club’s finances have been put under intense pressure by crippling ground-share fees at Maidenhead and mounting building costs at their proposed future home in Beaconsfield Road, Hayes.
Getting back to the borough is vital to the club’s plans, but work will not resume on the incomplete stadium – which must meet National Ground Grading Category B standard – until the full £300,000 is secured.
O’Driscoll last month set a cut-off point of February 12, the date of a second scheduled forum with fans, to get the funds in place, but that deadline will come and go without a resolution to the saga.
Hayes & Yeading announced over the weekend, in the wake of their third straight Conference South defeat as Eastbourne won 1-0 at York Road, that the planned meeting was cancelled due to ongoing discussions with external parties.
United are hoping to find 10 investors to pump £30,000 each into the club and enable them to reach the £300,000 target to get the stadium works completed.
Hayes & Yeading insiders have told GetWestLondon that although the sum is still some way from being met in full, significant progress has been made in recent weeks and the club is more than halfway there in their quest to reach the total.
The aim is still to get the money in place as quickly as possible, but the indications are that limping on until the end of the season by juggling the finances from week to week appears a more realistic prospect.
However, remaining in the division is looking an increasingly difficult task as Phil Babb’s side continue to struggle on the field and the spectre of relegation is starting to loom large ahead of a trip to leaders Bromley this weekend.
Meanwhile, fellow Conference South side Wealdstone saw their 11-match unbeaten run come to an end at home to Weston-super-Mare on Saturday as three goals in a dreadful opening 20 minutes saw them lose 3-1.
Stones can do Hayes & Yeading a favour this weekend by heaping more woe on bottom-of-the-table Staines Town when they head to Wheatsheaf Lane.
