WELLING United owner Barrie Hobbins has revealed the Wings have already made a substantial down payment of £30,000 on the club’s debt with HMRC.

The Park View Road outfit have been hit with a winding-up petition and face the possibility of going out of business if they don’t meet the full amount owed within the next fortnight.

However, Mr Hobbins is quietly confident the matter can be resolved and also called on fans to let him know if they have any fund-raising ideas.

He told News Shopper: “What we wanted to do was to put it out to supporters so they knew what was happening and what has happened.

“The only thing I would add to it is that a significant figure towards the debt has been paid.

“It amounts to £30,000 we received from pre-season football matches, which has been paid this week to HMRC.

“We’ve paid off a significant part of it with the pre-season money, so people can see it’s not an overwhelming debt.

“But a debt is a debt and until it’s sorted, it’s a problem to be sorted rather than a problem solved.”

He added: “We’ve got 14 days to sort it out and fingers crossed it will be.

“The worst scenario is that the club would be wound up, the next worse is that we would have to go into administration.

“But all the other options we have are better options, so we want to avoid those first two at all costs if we can and keep the club going as normal.

“Nothing will be affected at the present time, it’s business as usual and all the players are in place and will be paid in the normal way.

“We’ve got three or four different suggestions that we’ve put forward to supporters. We’ve got a football match here on Saturday and hopefully some good will come of that with people’s fresh ideas.

“They can phone me at any time, they know that. They’ve got my phone numbers at home and at the ground and we will go from there, so it’s not all doom and gloom.”

Welling’s unexpected brush with extinction was sparked by the dramatic collapse of an expected takeover last weekend.

Mr Hobbins was in advanced negotiations with an unknown party to relinquish control of the club, but the deal fell through at the last minute when the potential new owner couldn’t come up with the promised funds.

“I wouldn’t divulge his name, it’s not fair because he’s not in the country,” Mr Hobbins said. “I believe he has gone to Spain.”

“He’s a local businessman, let’s put it that way.

“That’s where it’s all fallen flat, all the promises led up to nothing.

“We put pressure on him to produce the money and that’s where it all went wrong, so we’ve got to pick up the pieces, which we’ll try and do.

“No stone will be left unturned and we will battle away to resolve it.”

Despite the uncertainty, Mr Hobbins is adamant player-manager Jamie Day will not have to dismantle his squad with the new season less than 48 hours away.

He said: “It looks as though he has got a good squad in place and if we can keep it that way for Jamie Day, then we will.

“There won’t be any changes in the short-term.

“If you start off-loading players, you don’t get the results or any of the other things that come with it.

“You don’t get the crowds and the support, so it would be foolish to do that.”