ALBION made a staggering £1.4 million loss in their last year at the Goldstone.

They also face a potential corporation tax bill of up to £1.3 million following the controversial sale of the ground. The shock figures are included in the annual accounts for the year ending May, 1997, when Bill Archer and David Bellotti were still in charge and before Dick Knight's consortium seized control of the club. They show that Albion were £1.412 million in the red, a huge rise from the previous year's £832,000 trading loss. The corporation tax bill is a worst case scenario and would be rolled over into the cost of building a new stadium. The accounts also reveal that: * Former director Greg Stanley and the Stanley Family Trust were repaid loans totalling £570,000, plus £455,000 interest, as a result of the Knight takeover. * Total income increased by only £57,000 to £1.1 million, despite bigger gates at the Goldstone as the team fought for League survival. * The £480,000 rent paid to buyers Chartwell Land to stay at the Goldstone for an extra year was substantially more than it would have cost the club in interest charges had the ground not been sold. * Wages and salaries rose by £4,000 to £.127 million. * Other costs, including Bellotti's Goldstone security arrangements, jumped from £95,000 to £.166 million. * The club spent £3,000 on new stadium development costs. Accountant Paul Samrah, a leading activist in the fans' campaign to oust Archer and Bellotti, said: "It's just a depressingly familiar story of how the club was run. "The bottom line is that in 1996 the group as a whole, after paying off debts, had £355,000 credit. It was actually £1.1 million in debt at the end of May, 1997. "This year is going to be fairly grim as well, with the move to Gillingham. So you can understand why the new board had to get rid of the top wage earners before Christmas."

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