Maidstone United co-owner Oliver Ash reveals relegated National League side will post financial loss for season 2022/23

Maidstone co-owner Oliver Ash has revealed the club are set to make their first loss in 11 years after relegation from the National League.

The Stones have posted profit every season under Ash and co-owner Terry Casey.

But, writing on the club website, Ash admitted that's about to change for the first time since the club returned to the county town.

Although the club will still be investing in the ground during the close season.

"Thanks to the Stones faithful who have jumped on the early bird season ticket bandwagon!," said Ash. "Can we achieve 1,000 season ticket sales this season, which would be a fantastic show of support.

"It really helps cash flow too, which is very tight at present. We are still paying wages to players with no match day income.

"It looks like we will make a loss in 2022/23 for the first time in 11 seasons. This doesn’t mean we are less ambitious to rejoin the National League.

"We still believe we can do so and succeed but we now know there is no margin for error.

"It just underlines how hard it is for us to stay profitable the higher up the pyramid we go.

"This in turn means we cannot accumulate reserves - as we did in the first few years at the Gallagher Stadium - for capital projects such as the away end washrooms and control office.

"After trying to put off this expensive project as long as possible we have now bitten the bullet and will carry out the works, although it will mean a further injection of capital we could have done without.

"We are also still considering a new TV gantry, while we can get part-funding help from the Football Foundation."

On the much-talked about Covid funding process which saw the National League directors criticised for their distribution model, Ash added: "People