New Notts County owner Ray Trew is simply looking for the club to survive until the end of the season. Trew came in and bought the cash strapped club for £1 last week. "This club needs £2.5million to see it through to the end of the season," said Trew.

"The total debt is in the order of £4million and we are expecting that to rise, but by how much we cannot say at this stage.

"We want to bring stability to this football club in the short term, to deal with the creditors and let the players continue the task in hand of attaining promotion.

"I have a team of accountants in and they are working relentlessly to unearth the extent of the damage. We should have more of an idea by the end of the week."

County are due back in the High Court on February 24 for a petition brought by HM Revenue and Customs over an unpaid tax bill.

Trew is confident the authorities can be appeased but admits he must investigate the Meadow Lane books further before deciding what action, if any, to take against Munto Finance and the way they went about running the club.

"We will call in the authorities, there is no question about that," he said. "However, at this stage that would just be a distraction we can't deal with.

"We have a job to do and we need every pair of eyes and every pair of hands on that task in the short term.

"We have got to deal with the winding-up order on the 24th, which we will do. It's very easy to go and pay the Customs & Revenue tomorrow but until we determine the extent of the debt of the football club, I'm not prepared to do that."

Trew, a former director at Lincoln, added that he had not ruled out the possibility of the club entering administration.