What will Worthing spend their FA Cup prize money on?

A 2-1 win at Chelmsford on Saturday saw Worthing progress into the third qualifying round and bank £9,000 prize money. That adds to the £6,000 they received for the first qualifying round victory at Faversham.

Stone says the club had not budgeted for the extra cash and it will now allow them to do repair work around the ground and upgrade spectator facilities.

He said: “Last year cost us really hard when we couldn’t play on our home pitch until October 14 – anywhere upwards of £40,000 or £45,000 we lost through gate receipts, etc.

“We’ve almost recovered but we’re still not quite there, so it’s taken us over a season to recover from the impact of last year. When I did the budget for this year – and we don’t budget for prize money – I took a very conservative view.

“The prize money is added cash in the bank, as it were, and is enormously welcome.

“It will allow us to pay for repairs that need to be done and pay any invoices we’ve got outstanding, while the bigger benefit is applying for grants.

“When you go to apply for football stadium approval funding and can get significant grants, you have to match that.

“While there’s 50 or 70 per cent funding available, you have to provide the rest.

“Having a little bit of spare cash means we can apply for the funding and show we’ve got the ability to put the extra money into it and it’s invaluable to us in that sense.”

The floodlights at Woodside Road are being repaired this week but Stone admits they still need to be replaced long-term, while the club also want to rejuvenate the toilet and refreshment facilities in the North East corner of the ground.

He said: “People might get cynical and say that the prize money will pay for a bigger first team but none of it will go towards paying first team players.

“It will go to providing the mini bus for the academy, making sure the ladies have all got the right tracksuits, upgrading facilities, there’s lots of things.

“It will support all of our teams and there’s a whole bunch of things we can use it for.”

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