BORO chairman Phil Wallace says the club needs the support of its fans more than ever after losing the financial support from Setanta earlier this week. Wallace wants to see bumper crowds at The Lamex Stadium next season to soften the blow in the club s b

BORO chairman Phil Wallace says the club needs the support of its fans more than ever after losing the financial support from Setanta earlier this week.

Wallace wants to see bumper crowds at The Lamex Stadium next season to soften the blow in the club's budget and has called on supporters to help Boro weather the storm to ensure manager Graham Westley's side are once again challenging for honours.

In a statement on the official club website, Wallace said the club will lose more than �100,000 due to Setanta's demise rather than the �70,000 originally quoted forcing him to return from his base in the USA to re-analyse the club's budgets.

"I've seen talk of �70,000 per club but it would have been over �100,000 as the Setanta contract had annual uplifts built in," he said. "So that's gone and anyone that thinks that's not a problem must be barking mad. It's a big enough problem for me to fly back from the US so that should tell you something.

"I have to go over the budgets again - we lived dangerously last year but fantastic results in the second half of the season got us out of jail.

"We still lost money, but it was manageable. If we hadn't done so well on the pitch we'd have lost a lot of money - more than we've ever lost before by a long way. Now add the loss of �100,000 before we've even kicked a ball and you'll see what we're talking about."

Wallace admitted Boro will have to make cuts in certain areas but believes the club is in a better position than most of their Blue Square rivals to cope with the cash shortfall and will not have to sell players.

"At Stevenage we're lucky - we have good financial backing from the directors, no debts whatsoever, cash in the bank and varied income streams. So we don't have to think about selling players to raise emergency cash for example, but we will have to make cuts in a number of areas to find �100,000.

"Some things that we took for granted before will have to be scrutinised now and we may have to be very innovative in trying to raise new funds.

"We will certainly need the help and support of our fans through the gates this season if we are to maintain a challenge for honours. That will be crucial - if we get that we can probably weather the storm, but if we don't we may have to reduce how much we're spending in whatever way we can.