Colchester United chairman Robbie Cowling aims for top-six budget

The Colchester owner and chairman admits the U's have ‘massively underperformed’ in the current campaign, where there are still battling to preserve their League Two status with five games remaining.

Mr Cowling says Colchester started this season with the seventh-best budget in the division.

And speaking at the club’s season-ticket holders forum at the JobServe Community Stadium last night, the U’s supremo there will be greater funds available to head coach Ben Garner, this summer.

He said: “Of course as a club, we want to be competing as high as we can.

“Sadly because of the predicament we’re in, being a League Two club for the foreseeable future is our wish at the moment, because we’re still in a relegation battle.

“Yes, we want to be as ambitious as we can.

“There is every chance next year that we will be competing at the top of whatever league we happen to be in.

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“We have a very good budget already lined up for next season and we should be competing towards the top of the league next year, whichever league that happens to be.

“Next year, I think there’s a good chance we’ll have a top-six budget.

“It’s really hard to say but that’s where I am, at the moment.”

Colchester have found themselves in a relegation battle, for the third successive season.

Mr Cowling admits no-one wants to be near the foot of the table and has vowed to continue to steer the club through ‘stormy waters’.

“We started the season with the seventh best budget in the league, so this year, we’ve massively underperformed,” said Mr Cowling, who spoke at the forum alongside the U’s sporting director, Dmitri Halajko.

“If I do have an answer for it, I think it’s because the leftovers of two poor years it gets ingrained in the club.

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“You get a mentality that’s stuck with the club and we’re having to find our way out of that.

“I think we’re starting to see that now, with some of the players’ performances.

“Being in a relegation battle is no fun for any of us.

“I don’t do it because I enjoy being at the bottom of the league.

“But the fact that we’ve had these relegation battles doesn’t deter me from doing the best I can for the club.

“I understand a lot of people in this room might think that Robbie Cowling steers the club into stormy waters; I’d like to think I steer them through stormy waters, which is what we’ve had over the last few years.

“There are challenges coming in the next couple of years that none of you are going to be aware of yet.

“There’s going to be a lot of changes in the regulation of football and the way that football finances are managed, so my next job is to steer us through that.

“That might not allow someone like myself to put in the finances I do, because everyone has got to completely balance.

“Yes, we’ve had two and a half years where it hasn’t been how any of us would have liked – two of them are very understandable, this one has been a hangover from those two years, so let’s get over that.”

A wide variety of questions were asked at the fans forum, which was attended by around 150 of the club’s supporters and also streamed online.

Mr Cowling was quizzed on subjects such as the Community Stadium pitch, a testimonial for Tom Eastman, half-time entertainment and Club United.

The Colchester chairman was asked if he would consider reducing ticket prices in order to try and attract more fans.

“I do want a full stadium but I don’t want me to have to pay to fill the stadium, as well as paying to put the team on the pitch and everything else,” he responded.

“I’d love a full stadium but we can’t do it for nothing.

“Cinemas would like their cinemas to be full every week, people who make cars would like to sell every one they do but you can’t give the product away.

“Colchester would be out of business and then where would we stand?

“For a very long time, I’ve accepted the fact that Colchester doesn’t have the support base that other clubs have.

“What we have at Colchester is a small but loyal support base and the numbers stay pretty much the same, regardless of how the team are doing and it’s very difficult to grow.

“There are more Ipswich Town season-ticket holders that live in Colchester than there are Colchester season-ticket holders.

“That’s always been the case.

“When I first took over the club and we were in the Championship, we couldn’t fill Layer Road and that was when we were getting 1,500-2,000 away fans.

“The club has never had that support base and what I’ve done – and I accept this might not be one of my strongest points – is try and concentrate on other areas to bring the money into this club, to get to that area where it doesn’t rely on my funding.

“But what I’m not going to do is be silly the other way and do crazy things that are going to make things worse.

“But I haven’t come up with that silver bullet that’s going to bring in a massive crowd but I would argue that nobody else has, either.”