Chairman hoping for trophy success
Stafford Rangers chairman Jon Downing is hoping that the team will bring home the bacon after the club enter the FA Trophy this weekend.
The third qualifying round beckons on Saturday with a thankless 440-mile round trip to Blyth Spartans for the all-Blue Square Premier clash, but the players will be stopping overnight beforehand in nearby Washington - after generous fans stumped up the money to pay for it.
Any fruits from the labour of a cup run is not a part of the budget at Marston Road but in the non-league world a bit of extra cash goes a long way and - having been dumped out of both FA competitions at the first hurdle last term and the FA Cup this season - Rangers have been starved of it.
Downing believes that a good result would make it smiles all round at the club.
He said: "It's an important game on Saturday, for lots of reasons. The morale of the players is very important in our thinking, and obviously there is no getting away from the financial side of it as well. There is £4,000 riding on it, we wouldn't budget for anything like that any extra revenue would be welcome at the club.
"What can you do with revenue? All sorts of things - support the manager to bring players in, make improvements around the ground, there are a 100 things around the place we could use it for.
"This is a pedigree club which is moulded around the team, so if we can get it right financially we will have a bright future. Marston Road will live on to some glory days, I am confident of that."
The outlook is much brighter for Rangers after seven points from the last 12 on offer, which has stabilised the club in mid-table.
Some poor results beforehand had seen boss Chris Brindley consider his position before opting to stay on and leading the team to their recent run, which chairman Downing believes was the right call.
He said: "Chris has never said he would call it a day to me, but when anybody has a bad day at the office they can let their passions brew over and things can come out when you have not seen the clear picture.
"Every club knows when 'the' day comes - just look at George Burley with Scotland this week - and we are not at that point. We are 13th in the league and, when you see where the lad has come from, you can't knock him because he's done a good job."
