St Albans City chairman Nick Archer has praised the fans following the launch of an initiative to increase the club’s budget.

Stand by Your Saints, formerly Save the Saints, has set up a website for fans to make a one-off or regular payments to boost the club’s playing budget.

The Saints, who finished 14th in the league this season, are in the bottom five in the Conference South in terms of playing budget.

“What a great group of fans we have,” Archer told the Herts Ad.

“The money is going to be important because the finances are always tight. We want to have the best players at St Albans City and at this time of year they are going to have other options, so an extra bit of money is very much appreciated.”

Of course, the whole set-up is based on trust that the fans’ money is spent on the playing squad, rather than anything else.

To that end, Archer wants to be as transparent as possible.

“If they are prepared to put money on the table then we need to be completely open with them,” he said.

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Other take-aways from our chat with the chairman:

• The club has arranged two friendlies in July, although he was unable to reveal the names of the teams.

• Pre-season training starts on June 27 and he is not expecting any ‘significant’ departures.

• Joint manager Jimmy Gray has interviewed ‘a couple’ of prospects.

• An announcement is expected in the next two or three weeks regarding the club’s reserve team. Archer hinted that it could be scrapped in favour of a development squad. “We’ve got good U17 and U18 players who aren’t ready for first-team football but are ready for senior football. We’ve applied to a new league because, in the old one, there wasn’t enough football to keep a regular squad together,” he said.