Goals scores a World Cup success as fans rush to emulate their heroes

Chief executive Keith Rogers said the group's five-a-side centres north of the Border had shared in the rise despite Scotland not reaching the World Cup finals.

The East Kilbride-based company has also made its first foray abroad following the opening of a centre in Los Angeles.

Rogers said he had plans for 12 sites in the United States but would wait to "push the go button" until studying results from the first centre, which has been trading in line with management's expectations.

Goals has also signed a master franchise agreement covering Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with Rogers expecting the first site to open next year and a further four centres over the next three years.

His comments came as Goals posted a 3 per cent rise in total sales in the six months to 30 June to 13.2 million.

But like-for-like sales dropped by a similar percentage due to the "worst snow in 47 years" closing roads to the firm's centres between January and March.

Goals said the cold snap knocked 800,000 off its profits compared to average weather conditions over the previous decade.

A total of 777 trading days were lost to snow or an average of 23 days for each of its centres.

But pre-tax profit - after adjustments for new accounting rules covering interest rate hedges - only slipped from 3.9m to 3.8m, beating analysts' forecasts. Goals held its interim dividend at 0.675p.

Rogers told The Scotsman: "I think these results will draw a line under the recession for us.

"We proved that football was relatively resistant to the recession but now we're seeing corporate events and birthday parties coming back as well. The World Cup gave us a great opportunity to promote these types of events and we made the most of it."

Rogers said the business was expanding at its fastest-ever rate, with four centres already opened during the current financial year and four under construction.

As announced at the AGM in April, funding is in place to open a further six complexes next year, and the company yesterday revealed it had obtained planning permission for the first three.

Numis upgraded its rating on Goals from "add" to "buy" following the interim results. Analyst Douglas Jack said: "Our upgrade to 'buy' reflects the potential for strong growth in 2011.

"With new sites performing well and sales up 3 per cent, we are holding forecasts, which anticipate a turn to strong expansion-led growth next year."

Paul Hickman at house broker KBC Peel Hunt said: "We believe the shares are undervalued. We are reducing our valuation to 190p, a 64 per cent upside against the current price."