Magpies' promotion bid gains momentum (From Bournemouth Echo)

Magpies' promotion bid gains momentum

7:17pm Sunday 14th March 2010 in

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WIMBORNE Town chairman Ken Stewart is hoping a meeting tomorrow night could help lay the foundations for the club’s push towards Southern League football.

Magpies continued their relentless drive for Wessex Premier honours with an emphatic 7-1 thumping of lowly Cowes Sports on Saturday.

And with teams finishing in the top two in with a chance of promotion, Alex Browne’s men are keeping their half of the bargain.

Now Stewart is aiming to stabilise the club’s off-field position in order to capitalise on the opportunity of bringing step four football to Cuthbury – should the chance arise at the end of the season.

At the meeting, Stewart is hoping a move to issue more shares in the club gets the green light. He believes this would go a long way to wiping out an outstanding debt to HM Revenue and Customs, which Stewart reported had been trimmed to £23,500.

He told the Echo: “There is a shareholders’ meeting tomorrow night and everybody has agreed to turn up.

“Hopefully, we will get the vote we need to issue more shares. Then we have a promise of a fair amount of money coming in to, hopefully, pay off near enough all of the debt. We are quite confident, at this present time, we can secure Southern League football.

“We are hoping that it all goes through tomorrow. On the understanding of what I have heard at the moment, hopefully we can get the majority we need.

“We just want to get our house in order so, if we get the chance, we can go up.”

Stewart does not foresee any problems in Cuthbury meeting the necessary ground-grading requirements for step four football and, with Poole Town suffering a number of setbacks in their bid to find a suitable venue, that would put Wimborne in pole position for elevation from the Wessex League.

Magpies’ money problems hit the headlines in November when the club revealed a £27,000 historical tax debt. Off-field events took centre stage again in January when director Paul Miller resigned in the wake of the Alex Pike saga, when the ex-boss was approached but then declined a return to Cuthbury.

On the field, however, things could hardly be going better. The in-form Magpies hammered Cowes, with goals from Lee Chudy (2), Gareth Barnes (2), Steve Whitcher, Steve Gilbert and Tom Clarke, continuing their excellent run.

Wimborne Town: Hutchings, Wilson, Gilbert, Lockyer, Thomson (Mullins, 75), Green, McCormick (Wyatt, 70), Stokoe, Whitcher, Chudy (Clarke, 65), Barnes. Unused subs: Haysom, Walker-Harris.