FALMOUTH Town Football Club’s supporters’ stand is set for a makeover after the club successfully met their fundraising target.

The stand, known as the Packet End, at the clubhouse end of their Bickland Park ground will soon receive several important structural repairs and a few cosmetic improvements thanks to a fundraiser organised by first-team manager Andrew Westgarth.

The club, whose first team scored a whopping 115 goals in 35 games during the shortened 2019/20 season, added another to that tally after smashing their fundraising goal of £1,000 inside 24 hours.

Town’s 2019/20 South West Peninsula League campaign was cut short amid the coronavirus pandemic, which saw the club lose out on nine matches worth of gate receipts and bar sales, with the closure of the clubhouse meaning the club currently has no income.

While some ground maintenance work has been covered by insurance, more money was required, with the club setting up a GoFundMe appeal to source the extra money needed.

The fundraiser had an initial target of £1,000 but the money raised has long since surpassed that milestone, with the current total standing at £1,550 from 97 separate donations.

The main purpose of the money is to repair the roof and extend it further along the stand, install new fascia boarding and to paint the remainder of the wall in the club’s colours.

But with the appeal being so warmly received by Town’s supporters, affectionately known as the F-Troop, the sizeable amount of surplus money will allow other improvements on the grandstand and dugouts, as well as for general painting and cleaning.

You can view the funding appeal at www.gofundme.com/f/packet-end-renovations/

Westgarth said: “The Packet End is looking a bit tired and the rest of the ground is looking really nice, so I just thought it would be a good idea to do a little GoFundMe page to see if the F-Troop will help out and put some money in and give it a bit of TLC.

“I think we put a £1,000 target in, and we smashed that within 24 hours.

“It just goes to show the strength of the F-Troop. It’s not just a Saturday thing, there’s a lot of good people out there and they’re all willing to help the club.”

Westgarth also signalled his appreciation for the supporters for donating to the club at a time when everyone is feeling the financial effects of coronavirus.

He said: “It’s all money that we needed because it was well documented that with the coronavirus we missed out on nine home games and that’s a lot of money, especially with us having a really good support, that’s a lot of revenue we’ve missed out on.

“At the minute we’ve got a lot going out and not a lot in so the help from the F-Troop has been brilliant.

“It’s amazing how much you can get done on that sort of money. People think you need millions but even a couple of hundred quid can go such a long way.

“It was a really good team effort from everyone involved, and not just from the players for once.”