Lowestoft battle back from brink to fulfil Wembley dream

Ask Geoff Price, the chairman of Lowestoft Town, how many tickets the club has sold for the FA Vase final against Kirkham & Wesham on Sunday and he will tell you...13,572.

That kind of precision is typical of the sharp business practices he has brought to the club since his arrival in October - helped by sales now being closed, although the remainder of Lowestoft’s 15,000 allocation will be available on the turnstiles at Wembley.

In January last year the Ridgeons League club from Suffolk were on the brink of closure, with £92,000 debts and a a tax bill of just under £20,000 due to the Inland Revenue. Lowestoft survived that crisis with Gary Bennett, the club sponsor, rallying support from the town at a series of meetings. A benefactor and ardent fan, who prefers to remain anonymous, settled the tax bill.

Price, who runs a business selling kitchens and bedrooms in the town, was alerted to the club by the publicity. He joined as a sponsor last July and was then elected chairman. “I’m born and bred in Marlow,” he said. “But I fell in love at the age of 16 with a girl from Lowestoft, moved there when I was 18. I suppose I’m just about a local after 30 years.

“This is the embarrassing bit: my first house was 60 yards away from the ground, but I’m a Spurs fan at heart and I got involved with Norwich City, and I never went there. This is my way of acknowledging and paying back the debt. I feel really, really bad. I should have been here earlier.”

Price says that he has sponsored 60 Norwich matches since the 90s - “47 wins and seven draws” - but is now fully committed to trying to enable Lowestoft to fulfil their potential. He gives 20 hours of his time to the club each week, has brought in Jenny Gillette from Norwich to build the commercial operation and has drawn up a business plan to take Lowestoft forward.

The key move has been to buy back the social club attached to the Crown Meadow ground. “We have paid back all our debts, with interest,” Price said. “We don’t owe anything to anyone except the bank, with whom we have a £14,000 overdraft - and they’re quite happy. We hope to have paid that money back by the end of the year.”

The Vase run has been an unexpected and welcome bonus for the club, and Price rejects the suggestion that Lowestoft will be running out at Wembley as favourites. “The players are definitely up for it,” Price said. “We have been made favourites but they have won two promotions and have put a lot of money into their team. Their players are going to be a league better than the one to which they have been promoted even next season. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

Price himself hobbled round Wembley at a press day three weeks ago on crutches while awaiting a hip-replacement operation. That has now taken place and he has been passed to attend the final in a wheelchair.

WALTER GAMMIE