SHARES in five-a-side football pitches operator Goals Soccer Centres have tumbled 12 per cent, after the company warned its sales had recovered more slowly than expected from a challenging summer holiday period.

Goals Soccer Centres said that its board now anticipated pre-tax profits for 2015, in the absence of adverse weather conditions, would come in between £8.2 million and £8.6m.

The company, which has 46 five-a-side football centres in the UK and one in the US city of Los Angeles, achieved a 10 per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £10.6m in 2014.

Goals Soccer Centres noted that it had, when it published interim results on September 9, reported that trading in its UK business over the summer holiday period had been challenging.

Updating the stock market on more recent trading, Goals Soccer Centres said: “Whilst we have made progress since September 9, delivering week-on-week sales improvements, the speed of this recovery has not been at the level anticipated.”

The company added: “In view of this, the board now anticipates that profit before tax for the current financial year will be in the range of £8.2m to £8.6m, predicated on the absence of adverse weather conditions.”

Shares in Goals Soccer Centres, which is run by managing director Keith Rogers, dropped by 18.5p or 12 per cent to 135p.