Wealdstone boss gets budget boost

STUART Maynard has received an increase to his budget at Wealdstone in order to help achieve survival.

The Stones finished outside of the National League relegation zone last season despite cutting costs and furloughing their top earners.

The club wouldn’t have returned to National League South after just one season in any case due to the Step 2 season being curtailed.

However, with relegation back on the table this term, the Wealdstone board have moved to give Maynard’s squad a boost.

“The club continues to make progress on and off the pitch however the competitive landscape of this league continues to get tougher with bigger budgets and more full-time teams,” said director Dominic Whyley. “In order to compete, give our supporters a team to be proud of and provide us the best chance of staying up, the board wants to make a sensible increase in the playing budget to support Stuart and Matt (Saunders, assistant manager) getting it right on the pitch.

“We have already recruited strongly by signing Jack Cook from Woking, Josh Umerah and Matt Buse from Torquay, Andrew Eleftheriou from Dagenham and Nikola Tavares from Crystal Palace. The opportunity to add further to the squad remains via permanent and loan signings.”