AIM-quoted football club operator Watford Leisure cut its loss from £1.6 million to £343,000 in the six months to December, helped by a £614,000 surplus on ending the finance lease on its Vicarage Road stadium.

Chairman Graham Simpson says first-half turnover slipped by £210,000 to £4.45 million, reflecting the non-recurrence of £330,000 funding from the Football League in the first six months of 2003. For Watford, which lost £4.5 million in the 2003-04 financial year, the most significant financial milestone in the first half of the current year was the £7.6 million repurchase of the Vicarage Road stadium, with the assistance of fans and a funding from Jimmy and Vince Russo, whose Valley Grown Salads company emerged with a 29.5 per cent Watford stake.

Watford Football Club, which won only four out of 24 games last season, has been struggling to avoid relegation from the Championship League and brought in a new team manager, Adrian Boothroyd, 'a progressive manager whose ambitions match those of the board'. Simpson says promotion to the Premiership remains his one unfulfilled ambition, after achieving business goals such as buying back the stadium.

He claims to be confident current progress 'will lead to a successful football team, better facilities... and a profitable club', though he does not specify a timetable. At 50p, down from a 12-month high of 82.5p, Watford's shares value the company at £6.4 million and are speculative.