Shooter did reappear, and walked back into Manor Park for his second reign on 16 July 1990 – but within 24 hours the future of the football club was again thrown back into the balance.
Incredibly, after emerging as victorious from the High Court, this weird man suddenly didn’t know whether he wanted to be Boro chairman. The judge had given him the right to buy my shares – against my will and at a devalued price. I was devastated by the decision and then amazed to read the headline in the following day’s Tribune: “Fresh Twist in Boro Saga”.
There was a photograph of Shooter holding a copy of the High Court judgement, with him saying: “I need to find out exactly what the financial state of the club is before I decide to buy Mr Kelly’s 1,007 shares.” What a nerve! After three years of legal battles to win control of the football club, after causing enormous costs on both sides, after blackening my name and promising to lead Boro to new heights, Shooter threw the whole issue back into the melting pot.
He said: “I do not want to walk in and find the bailiffs knocking on my door. I must have assurances before I decide to take those shares.” These are the shares he had fought tooth-and-nail to wrest from my grasp. This is the man who had battled to deny me the chance to save the Boro. He knew – as did I – that there were serious financial problems at Manor Park. The situation certainly had not been helped by the club being thrown out of the GM Conference, which affected attendance receipts, nor by the club being run for three years by a temporary board, who had pressed ahead with plans for a cash-stretching new stand.
Interim board chairman Howard Kerry made an official complaint about Shooter in January 1990, after an incident during a home match. Shooter had attempted to enter the Vice Presidents’ club, though he was not a member. The door steward told him he would have to see the VP’s Chairman. Shooter entered the room and shouted: `If I am not let in I will close this fucking club.”
Shooter publicly criticised the interim board. He accused them of not keeping him informed. He said the club’s debts “could be as high as £150,000”. He announced that the telephones and the electricity at the ground had been cut off and that “many people have not been paid”.
He had always been referred to in the papers as “the wealthy Coventry businessman”. Now everyone was waiting for this “wealthy businessman” to do great things for Nuneaton Borough.
This death-knell came just four months later – four months in which Shooter led the club on an ever-downward spiral. He sat back and allowed it to happen. He tried to point the finger of blame at everyone else. Now I was out of the way, he was accusing the interim board of getting Boro in a financial mess.
The interim board had put together to clear Boro’s debts. They had formulated a business plan for a £35,000 mortgage on the ground, plus a £55,000 brewery loan, connected to social club beer sales. This would have gone a long way to paying a bank overdraft, clearing tax and VAT payments and satisfying creditors. But Shooter blocked a re-financing package. Why? And why was he party to the plan for a new stand, knowing full well the club could not afford it?
It was Shooter who had issued the instructions for the seats to be ripped out of the old main stand. He was in on the discussions the temporary board were having about replacing it. Then, when he was completely in charge, he did not even bother to call the creditors – the contractors – together to try to sort out the problem.
Nothing was done to save the club. Shooter knew a statutory demand for payment had been issued by a joinery company based down the road from Manor Park – but it was ignored. He refused to comment about what was happening.
The club’s bank account was frozen. And Shooter did was to go onto his “Boro Hot Line” and make pathetic appeals to the fans. He pledged to pay the £800 Prize money out of his own pocket – but made no offer to settle up with the local carpenter. He also said that the whole team may have to be put up for transfer.
And so Boro tumbled towards liquidation. One writ was followed by others. The Inland Revenue demanded money.
When the winding-up order was made, interim board members Kerry and Sandy issued a press statement asking three pertinent questions of Shooter:
“Before taking over, Mr Shooter told the fans he had plenty of money to run the club. Where is the evidence? He also said he had businessmen waiting to join him on the board. Where are they? Members of the interim board were told by Mr Shooter he would be arranging a mortgage to settle the outstanding club debts. Where is it?”
When these questions were put to Shooter he replied: “I never said I had plenty of money to put into the club nor did I say I would arrange any mortgage. There is no further comment.”
I will never forget that freezing cold December morning when the axe finally fell on the Boro. I sat in Coventry County Court in a complete daze as the registrar spoke of “a sad day for Nuneaton”. It was like being at a funeral.
A QC, acting for Shooter, made a last-minute plea for the ground to be re-mortgaged. He said that his client had “inherited a legacy of debt and chaos”. An application for an adjournment of proceedings was opposed by all creditors and the registrar gave an order to put the club into the hands of a Receiver.
After being forced to watch Boro voted out of the GM Conference; after enduring High Court humiliation, this was the final, heart-breaking, mind-numbing nail in the coffin.
Shooter has to take full responsibility. Between August 1 – when he was officially back in charge – to 18 December – when the club collapsed – little was done to halt the slide. He accepted an invitation from shareholders to a meeting aimed at addressing the worrying state of affairs. Shooter was defensive, very evasive and failed to explain himself. In response to a direct question from John Evans, Shooter denied that the club was in any danger.
Three weeks later, it was gone. Nuneaton Borough FC Limited was wound up in January 1991
In two short spells in charge of Nuneaton Borough, Shooter had the club demoted and declared bankrupt. He had clawed his way into the chair, but was neither man enough nor honest enough to admit that he couldn’t do the job. The two most awful events in the football club’s once-proud history occurred with that man at the helm. No matter who he blames, no matter whether it was pre-planned, that cannot be denied.