GUISBOROUGH Town Football Club, has acknowledged the difficulties and challenges posed to the club during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lockdown has had an unprecedented effect on the club, with no football or social club income since the standstill started in March. And no-one knows yet when this situation will change.

Club chairman, Don Cowan said: “While our KGV Stadium has come to a halt as far as football and social activities are concerned, we are nevertheless continuing to work very hard behind the scenes to prepare for the day when we are able to restart our footballing activities across all levels of our club. Apart from our successful senior side, this will include our thriving junior section which has over 200 young players of the future and next season we will once again have ladies and girls football teams at the KGV. So despite all the challenges we are facing – there are some exciting opportunities ahead at Guisborough Town Football Club once the lockdown shackles are removed.”

To assist with the financial pressures on the club, the club has recently launched what has rapidly become a flagship fundraising scheme – the Guisborough Town 50FIFTY Club. As the name implies, the proceeds of the scheme are split 50-50 between the club and those people who have signed up.

There are currently around 270 entries for the draw and the number continues to grow steadily towards the 300 mark.

Mr Cowan said: “The valuable funds being raised each week from the draw are proving crucial in helping us offset the loss of all our other income streams and this will help put is in a good position to hit the ground running so to speak once all the restrictions are finally lifted.”