MARK WILLIAMS hailed another successful trading year for Wrexham Football Club, with the main source of income continuing to be gate receipts.

Financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2018, showed the overall operating loss was £36,201 against an initial budgeted loss of £195,000.

When the 'Build the Budget' initiative of £50,000 - set up to boost extra funds to spend on the first team - was injected as share capital by Wrexham Supporters Trust, the overall trading position of the club was positive for the second successive season.

Board director Williams, who will address fans at tonight's AGM, said: "We traded ahead of budget, we saw increases in all our income streams.

"It was the second season that we operated the stadium so we have learnt a lot more from that as each year goes by.

"That helps us make better budgeting decisions and the key aspect was it allowed us to invest more in the first team."

Wrexham were challenging for promotion last season but a poor run-in following the departure of manager Dean Keates, who left to take charge of hometown club Walsall in March 2018, led to the Reds missing out on the play-offs.

But improved performances on the pitch in 2017-18 meant income from matches increased by 26 per cent on the previous season.

The increase in gate receipts, along with the successful 'Build the Budget' campaign, enabled the club to support the management team with total first team costs rising to just under £1.1 million, an increase of 14 per cent on the season before.

"The key thing for us is that gate receipts is by the far the largest source of income," said Williams.

"The improvement on the field, although it was disappointing with how the season ended, showed in the gate receipts improving.

"What that allowed us to do was to spend more money on the football side of the business.

"Our football costs went up from £940,000 to just under £1.1million, all because our gate receipts were a lot higher.

"The reason we can do that is because we break even everywhere else so we haven't got any other parts of the business taking money from us.

"From day one, we have always said we are trying to maximise the first team expenditure."

Overall income was down due to a reduction in transfer fees and prize money, none of which is budgeted for.

"The income did go down from last year but that is purely because of transfer fees and prize money," added Williams.

"We budget 'zero' for cup-runs and things like that, we are always prudent on that."

Meanwhile, the total of investment by supporters into the club has passed the £1million mark within seven years of ownership.