ACCRINGTON Stanley owner Andy Holt has revealed recent postponements have cost the club more than £100,000 in lost matchday revenue.

And the loss of income has led to the club’s majority shareholder delving even deeper into his personal fortune to make sure wages of all club staff continue to be paid and the club stays afloat.

Holt has already ploughed £1.2million into the Reds in the last two months. And he is spending thousands to improve the drainage of the Wham Stadium pitch, using Padiham-based Readstone Construction Ltd, to avoid the pitch being waterlogged in the future - even in the extreme weather conditions that have been experienced in recent weeks.

Stanley have not played a home game since November 14.

Heavy rain has led to the postponements of home games against Wycombe Wanderers on December 12, Carlisle United on Boxing Day and most recently Notts County on Saturday.

But, with the work being done this week, he is confident that this weekend’s visit of Portsmouth - and the return of management duo Paul Cook and Leam Richardson - will go ahead as planned, whatever the weather.

“It’s the extremes that have done it. When Whalley and Padiham flood you know it’s extreme weather, and the pitch wasn’t capable of dealing with that amount of water. It would have coped with reasonable amounts of rain but this overwhelmed us,” said majority shareholder Holt.

“The lost fixtures have cost us. It will be six figures - north of £100,000.

“But we’ve got professional companies in and we are upgrading the drainage so that the flooding across the pitch that we’ve experience won’t happen again, it will just be surface water and we can deal with that.

“We are taking long-term measures. It’s not a patch-up job.

“They have been down with cameras and washed all the drainage out.

“Once the new main drain goes in, it’s done forever. The drains will be easily cleared and more than capable of coping with whatever weather is thrown at us.

“I don’t know how much it’s costing. Every time I turn around it’s another £10,000. But I’ve just got to stand it because it’s got to be done.

“I’ve still had to pay the wages, and costs to the opposition for travel and accommodation, when games have been called off. I’ve written it off.

“In the two months I’ve been with the club, everything that could go wrong off the pitch has gone wrong.

“I feel like I’m a jinx.”

But in many respects Holt has been their saviour. It is hard to imagine what would have become of the club as a result of lost matchday income had it not been for his investment.

“We haven’t earned much since November 14, and we couldn’t pay the wages before then,” he said.

“By next season we will be on an even keel.

“I’m not concerned about it, we’ve just got to sort it out.”