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Chairman Jim Parmenter has a message for critics of how he runs Dover Athletic - put your money where your mouth is.
The positions of both Mr Parmenter and boss Andy Hessenthaler have been questioned by some fans amid an indifferent campaign back in National League South.
Mr Parmenter, who re-iterated the need for more investment, feels it’s wrong to criticise manager Hessenthaler, who was loyal to the club during the pandemic.
He said: “Why would you criticise a manager that’s seen us through what he did during Covid? We’re sitting mid-table. Why would you criticise that?
“If people want to criticise me, come and have a go if you fancy it. Get your chequebook out!
"If you think you can do a better job, come and talk to me. By all means, have a go at running the football club.
“I’ve been doing it for 19 years now. We have gone from Isthmian South to the National League - okay, we have dropped a league now - but we have got an A-graded ground and we have got no debt.
“If somebody can do better than that, come on down.”
Whites played just twice at Crabble in December and November, and Mr Parmenter laid bare the costs involved with that lack of home fixtures - with the deficit coming out of his own pocket.
“A club like this needs investment,” he noted. “As I’ve said many times before, we can’t survive on crowds of 500 every two weeks.
“We’ve just had a 10-week period with only two home games.
"So our costs have outnumbered our income by about 10 to one over the last 10 weeks which, obviously, puts a lot of strain on clubs like us and others.”
In stark contrast to that, Whites begin 2023 with five home fixtures in January. Mr Parmenter, however, is worried how many supporters will be able to afford to attend all those matches.
He said: “The fixture planning was really bad anyway because it gave us two games at home and then two games away. What this has done is now we have five home games in January.
“Well, that is going to affect what games people can come to and how many games they can afford to come to watch. That’s a worry.
“Having gone 10 weeks with two home games, we now have got seven home games in about six weeks. That’s very hard for people to afford.”
Asked if he had contemplated doing deals for fans to attract them to come, he replied: “I have thought about that - but the reality is that deals don’t really make any difference.
“If people are coming, they’re coming.
“It’s possible to do deals but, at the end of the day, it’s not the number of people through the gate - it’s the amount of cash through the gate - that pays the wages.”
Mr Parmenter thinks plenty of their league rivals are in the same boat, though, in relation to attendance numbers.
He said: “With a few exceptions, most clubs are finding now that crowds are down.
“Importantly, sponsorship is down quite dramatically because lots of companies, particularly in this area, are feeling the effects of the last two years of financial trouble.”
Dover sit 15th in National League South but their chairman still thinks they have a good chance of making the play-offs.
Initially reflecting on 2022 before their New Year’s Day 2-1 loss to Dulwich, he said: “I think it started slowly - but improved.
“We’re probably about where we deserve to be at the moment but there’s still half the season left and we have got a good chance of getting into the play-offs.
“We’re going to try [but] there’s a lot of strong teams.”
At present, though, they lie closer to the relegation zone than the top seven. But Mr Parmenter rejected the notion there’s a big few months ahead.
“Not particularly, no bigger than any other few months for the club,” he said. “It’s a tough league.
“Now, this league is what the National League was five or six years ago in terms of investment at the bigger clubs and the costs of running clubs at this level.
“Our crowds are disappointing, which obviously affects what we can do with player budgets, but that’s understandable, given the financial hardship most people are finding themselves in.”
Co-chairmen Alex Petheram and Eamonn McGurk will be standing down at the end of the season at National League North Gloucester City. Mr Parmenter thinks more board members Step 2 clubs will call it a day over the next month or so too.
He said: “You only need to look at what has happened at Gloucester. The joint-chairmen have said they’re stopping at the end of the season, they’re not going to invest any more.
“I think we’ll find, when we get towards the end of the season and into February, many other clubs will be finding out they’ll be struggling financially.
“It’s just the way it is in football at this level at the moment.”
But Mr Parmenter himself intends to stick around.
Asked if he would remain for the long haul, he replied: “I have to, don’t I?
“If I’m not here, then the club isn’t here. It’s been a long 19 years - we have had the highs and the lows - and this is a difficult period for all football clubs at this level.
“All clubs need investment. Without investment, you can’t grow.”
He accepts he has made mistakes during his time in charge but is proud of where the club now is.
Mr Parmenter said: “You always make mistakes, don’t you? Nobody can say they don’t make mistakes.
“But if you look at where we were 18 years ago, where we are now and what we have got as a football club in terms of the ground we have got and the cup runs we have been on, we have had some great times.
“But football is a game of ups and downs and, at the moment, we’re in one of those periods where it’s tough.”
He also commented on plans to convert their old training pitch behind the River End Stand to a 3G pitch exclusively for community use - albeit there has been a setback to those plans since they were initially unveiled in November.
Asked if he had considered instead putting a 3G surface on the main pitch, Mr Parmenter replied: “We thought about it but I don’t really think that works for us.
“A 3G pitch behind the River End was the answer.
"Unfortunately, Dover District Council have decided it’s not a priority for them and they have, basically, blocked the Football Foundation funding that we could have got because they want to use it in other areas.
“We’re now left with the task of trying to raise that money elsewhere which, without Foundation grants, that’s going to be quite difficult.”
Dover this Saturday are away to bottom side Hungerford before a home game on Tuesday against Taunton.
