Ebbsfleet United chief executive Damian Irvine is pleased the club’s financial figures are heading in the right direction.

The Fleet reduced their losses for the financial year ending May 30, 2021 to £1.3million despite having to play that curtailed season behind closed doors.

No fans were allowed in to watch home matches at Stonebridge Road as the Covid pandemic hit football finances hard.

But the Fleet still managed to stick to their plan to reduce losses year-on-year, having lost more than £1.6m in the previous campaign.

“Our target is to reduce year-on-year losses and we’ll keep striving to do that,” said Irvine, who has led the drive to bring Ebbsfleet’s finances under control.

“The losses are not sustainable, we are aware of that.

“When I arrived, the job year-on-year was to reduce that. The objective is to get to a sustainable club but 99% of football clubs won’t get that, somewhere in the middle of that is where the club is at its optimum level.

“It’s what I came to do but the balance is to do that with strong performances on the pitch. We’re tracking where the plan was to track two-and-a-half years ago.

“We’re not suggesting that the numbers are pretty or it’s job done but every year we’re reducing that loss is making us more sustainable without requiring our ownership to keep funding it.”

The football club’s recently released financial figures, for the year ending May 30, 2021, show that once interest, depreciation and amortisation are taken into account, the loss before taxation was £1,321,818.

The 2020/21 season didn’t start until October 2020 and was curtailed in February 2021 when clubs voted to null and void the campaign. The Fleet felt the season should have been completed.

The effects of the pandemic are clear to see with matchday income falling from £373,591 to £58,468 and commercial activities dropping to £77,792 from £95,534, although retail and merchandising increased from £3,259 to £16,179.

The club also benefited from government grants of £474,403. Wages and salaries were reduced from £1,335,031 to £1,111,803.

Reflecting on running the club during the pandemic, Irvine said: “It was really tough. It was tougher in that it was the start of the turnaround period that I came to do so to still get a reduced loss year-on-year was quite encouraging.

“A lot of organisations could have been forgiven to have a year off in the pandemic in that sense and take one step forward and two steps back because of it.

“We’ve kept on track and that’s why I drive everyone really hard every day, all we can do is keep going on that path.

“£1.3m seems a massive number, it was £1.6m, £1.8m and over £2m before that.

“In three years’ time if that number is down below a million the outlook looks very different in terms of a long-term sustainability model.”

Ebbsfleet, whose total losses now exceed £16m, retained their full-time status despite being harshly demoted from the National League on points per game at the end of the 2019/20 campaign.

It means higher costs but it’s a model that the Fleet intend to stick with.

Irvine said: “The choice to go back to part-time would have been a huge concession for supporters and sponsors and what our ambition is.

“We need to rectify the injustice of what happened in 2020. The decision to be full-time is an expensive model.”

Fleet have transformed their matchday offering in recent months with changes to catering services and live music post-match.

Another venture to utilise their facilities is hosting rugby league on July 3 when London Broncos take on Sheffield Eagles at Stonebridge Road.

“They are selling a good number of tickets for that,” said Irvine. “Broncos have found a bit of form now, they’re off the bottom although they are still in a relegation battle.

“The pitch was done the day after the play-off game here so that will be ready to go, the posts will come in, the lines marked out and it’s coming together nicely.”