Goals Soccer Centres on the attack after return to profit

Goals Soccer Centres scored with shareholders on Tuesday when the troubled football pitch operator showed that a turnaround plan was working and returned to the black.

The five-a-side specialist presented its first full-year set of results since a shake-up last year following a brace of profit warnings. Rank Group’s Mark Jones was hired as boss, and former Inter Milan chief Michael Bolingbroke was appointed to the board.

Jones said: “In 2015, the whole industry was under strain from competition and there was under-investment in our pitches. We should have been investing to keep pitches around five years old, but they were seven years before I joined. We are now down to a 4.3 figure as part of a new investment plan.

“The early signs are that the business is recovering,” he said.

The company made a pre-tax profit of £3.7 million in 2016, compared with a £6.2 million loss a year earlier. Sales rose 1.6% to £33.5 million.

This year it plans to spruce up club houses at its 18 London venues.

It is also expanding in the US and will start construction on a California site this year.