AFTER reaching a £100,000 fundraising target inside three weeks, Darlington supporters are being encouraged to continue digging deep for the club.

A community share offer initiative launched by the Darlington FC Supporters Group (DFCSG) was closed yesterday after more than enough pledges were registered – over six weeks ahead of the May 31 deadline.

The money raised will be used to build Quakers’ new home at Blackwell Meadows, in Darlington, which they are due to move into next season.

Wayne Raper, chairman of the DFCSG, the major shareholders as well as corporate director of Darlington FC, appealed for fans to continue showing goodwill.

He said: “Due to the perceived appetite of the Darlington public to raise further funds for the future of the football club, we’re currently looking into additional fundraising streams which should appeal to a wide range of fans.”

“Watch this space.”

On the share offer, Raper said: “We thank everyone who has pledged so far and enabled us to hit the target six weeks ahead of schedule – a quite staggering achievement.”

The DFCSG took advice from Supporters Direct before closing the offer, rather than raise the target, and it now stands at £106,000.

The excess £6,000 shall be retained should any pledges not be realised.

Raper added: “We will now continue to speak to individual investors in Darlington 1883 Ltd. with a view to exchanging their shareholding to allow us to reach the 90 per cent shareholding mark which in turn will allow us to offer EIS tax benefits to anyone who has invested £500 or more in the Community Share scheme. We would urge anyone that has received a letter for Darlington 1883 Ltd. share exchange who hasn’t yet indicated their preference, to contact us as soon as possible so that we can finalise the EIS application.

“If we are unsuccessful in offering EIS tax relief we must allow those who have pledged £500 or more to review their investment in light of this. In this instance it is likely that some pledges could be reduced. It is also possible that a small number of pledges may not be realised as actual investment.

“With the above in mind we will keep the final £6,000 worth of pledges as a reserve in case we require further investment to top-up to £100,000 once the pledges have been collected. Any of the reserve pledges needed will be allocated on a first come, first served basis until we have accrued £100,000 in actual investment. Should we need additional income above that figure we can potentially re-open the community share offer.

“No money will be taken until we have finalised the outstanding EIS issue. We will communicate with all investors directly before any payment is requested or cashed. The deadline for payment will be 7th June however if anyone would like to make payment earlier we can arrange this on an individual basis.”

Explaining why the successful share offer was closed, Raper said: “It centres around a business plan that has been designed using a figure of £100,000 – to offer more shares would change the dynamics of the plan and therefore require us to restate the plan to all current investors and also remodel the re-payment plan.

“We should remember that as community shares is an investment which is intended to be repaid over time, we have to ensure that we do not place too much of a burden on both Darlington FC Supporters Group and Darlington FC in creating the provision to repay.”

On the pitch, Darlington aim to take a step closer to promotion tomorrow when they face struggling Stamford at home.

A decision has yet to be made on whether the game will be moved to Spennymoor Town’s Brewery Field.