Notts County are facing up to the prospect that they need £2million by Wednesday in order for the club to survive.
The Magpies are due in the High Court in two days after the club's owners Blenheim 1862 were served a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs over an unpaid £600,000 tax bill. Executive chairman Peter Trembling still hopes to pay off the debt and avoid going to court.
"We hope to be able to satisfy the winding-up petition before Wednesday by paying off our debts. The critical thing is to get £2million into our bank account before then," Trembling told the Evening Post.
He added: "It's a challenge but that is what we have been working towards for the last few weeks and I'm ever hopeful we can do that.
"It will give us a bit of room to play with. We could actually go to court and pay off our tax bill of £600,000.
"But the danger with a winding-up petition is that we could have all of our creditors turning up on the court steps and jumping on the back of the petition.
"In which case, we have to satisfy the judge that we have got the funds to pay everybody.
"If we haven't got that in our bank account our next course of action is to show proof of funds committed to pay these creditors off and that we just need a bit more time, and really plead our case."
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