THE wet weather has cost Taunton Town Football Club almost £20,000 so far this year.

The team's last match at Viridor Stadium on Wordsworth Drive, was almost two months ago, when they welcomed Tiverton Town on Boxing Day.

Chief executive Kevin Sturmey said seven successive postpone¬ments have caused the club a huge headache.

He said: “It is a struggle because we can't pay players when we do not have football income.

“We are lucky that we have other areas of income for the club which are helping.

“The games will be replayed but on Tuesday nights you don't get the same bar revenue because peo¬ple have to drive and work the fol¬lowing day.

“It is not just the football that has been affected - we have skit¬tles and darts teams and because it is raining, people tend to drive rather than walk, which means we don't take as much money on the bar.”

The club say they are only a cou¬ple of weeks behind on payments to players and staff but they had to postpone their match against Merthyr Town on Saturday and Cirencester Town on Tuesday, meaning they have to wait until March 1 now for their next home clash against Paulton Rovers.

Mr Sturmey said: “I have never known the weather to be as bad as it is this year.

“There has been no respite but if we can get 48 hours of dry weather then we will be fine.

“We have a good pitch and we are working hard with sand and pitchforks to drain the water but it keeps raining and the water table is so high the rainfall has nowhere to go.”