Ilyas Khan is cautiously hopeful that a settlement will be reached over the Accrington Stanley ownership and that the club can then go forward.

But the chairman did issue an ominous warning that, without the issue being decided soon, the club could go into administration – and incur a points deduction.

There has been a long-running wrangle over the ownership with former chairman Eric Whalley, listed as the majority share owner at Companies House, wanting to sell his shares to managing director Dave O’Neill two years ago.

However, the deal never went through although Whalley did stop his involvement in the day-to-day running of the club with O’Neill taking over.

This has all left an air of uncertainty around the club and it came to a head when Khan and the club’s board of directors met two weeks ago amid new financial problems for Stanley.

The club almost went out of business in 2009 due to an unpaid £308,000 tax bill which Khan helped to pay off.

At the meeting they decided on a possible way forward and the board are waiting for the former chairman to get back to them over a settlement which includes him relinquishing his shares in the club among other things.

"Mr Whalley has been co-operative but nothing has been signed yet so we are just waiting to see what happens next," said Khan, who will support the club in the short term once the ownership issue is sorted and then plans a new share issue which will bring fresh money into the club.

"At the meeting we decided no one individual is bigger than the club and we had to put the club’s interests first.

"We need to avoid adminstration and, while the club is not clear of this yet, we want to do as much as we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.

"It would be a disaster for it to happen with the club doing so well on the pitch and we are all working to avoid it."

Stanley were in the news over the last week again for an outstanding tax bill with the HMRC advertising through auctioneers CW Harrison and Son that there was to be an auction of all Stanley’s key assets – including the seats and the floodlights – in the Crown Ground next week (March 9).

The Reds had fallen behind on their £32,000-a-month tax bill and still owed £9,000 but chief executive Rob Heys said this has been averted and the auctioned has been cancelled. "We have paid off the tax bill but the situation is still tight. We have made it known we are in a difficult situation with the cashflow due to the loss of two of our main sponsors – Combined Stablisation and Tradewinds.

"This lost us £50,000 for the year. It is hard for those companies but has a knock-on effect on us too as we need that money for wages.

"Then with the number of postponed games – we are currently three behind – we have been left with a big shortfall.

"We are lucky that we have such understanding players and staff behind the scenes, they have been great and so far have carried on regardless despite the problems, but we can’t expect them to do this forever.

"We haven’t been able to pay them the full amount this month and any money that we do get into the club will go to the wages, but it is like a drip feed at the moment.

"It is a case of how understanding the players will be as it’s all going so well on the pitch with three wins out of three but, if everything isn’t sorted soon, then we could struggle to keep hold of the likes of Jimmy Ryan and Terry Gornell as well as losing good office staff.

"We want to put it all to bed now and look forward."

Khan knows that it is a crunch time at the Crown Ground.

"There is the current debt at the club and this has been made worse by the continuing lack of resolution of the ownership issue between Eric and Dave O’Neill.

"Dave is probably the real loser in this, in that he did invest substantial capital into the club.

"But hopefully this will be sorted out finally, and then we can take the club forward.

"The club’s budget was running to plan until December, and with our sponsors getting into some financial difficulty, and the postponements of the home games, the budget slipped.

"If the club can reach a settlement with Mr Whalley, and avoid adminstration it will be a wonderful situation.

"And it would be even better if we can get into the play-offs – my heart tells me we can do it although my head tells me that I should be happy with mid-table."