Dorchester Football Club made a trading profit of £41 in the last financial year, directors were told at the Magpies' annual meeting.

But chairman Eddie Belt has warned that unless the club win promotion this season and get the boost of lucrative local derbies with Weymouth, they may be forced to trim their budget for next season.

Mr Belt said the small profit on a turnover of just under half a million pounds - which compared with a £15,883 loss the previous year - means the Magpies are now "virtually debt-free".

The figures were recently ratified by Football Association auditors who carried out a routine examination of the Dr Martens League Club's accounts and concluded they were financially well-managed.

"We are now into the last year of the three-year plan I mapped out when I became chairman and I am pleased to say we have reached my financial goal of getting us back on an even financial keel," said Belt.

"But this has been achieved thanks largely to the cash from two ground-sharing arrangements with Bournemouth and Yeovil and with nothing like that to look forward to next season we now badly need promotion back to the Dr Martens Premier Division because games with Weymouth would mean an extra £20,000.

"If we don't get it - and we have made it a bit harder for ourselves with our results over the past two weeks - it will still be tough going financially and that is why we have set up a special fund-raising committee under David Grassby to look at other ways of increasing our income."

Mr Belt said he knew there would be some criticism from supporters who felt the Board should find cash to improve their squad now in a bid to secure promotion.

"There might be a little bit of money to help Mark (Morris) if he finds someone he can get on loan," said Belt. "But you only have to look at the mess other clubs around you have got themselves into by spending huge sums of money they don't have and I cannot bring myself to do that to Dorchester."

In his annual report the chairman commented on the new water sprinkler system that had been installed during the year with grant aid from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, the record number of entries for the patron's draw, the tremendous job reserve team manager Phil Simkin had done in bringing good local youngsters to the club, the successful relationship the club has with Dorchester Town Youth FC and Dorchester Town Ladies' FC, the support given to the club by the Supporters' Club/Avenue Forward Line and his thanks to Mark Morris for his work as manager.

The retiring directors, Colin Clark and Keith Miller were unanimously re-elected and the co-option of Roger Murray was confirmed by the shareholders.

Shareholders complimented the club on disabled facilities at the Avenue Stadium and praised the directors on the way they managed the club financially.