Coalville Town officials have told how they stopped the club from going under in just 10 days following chairman Glyn Rennocks' decision to step back from the the role.

When the club's backer made his shock decision to withdraw his financial support for the Ravens two weeks ago - it put the future of Coalville Town in serious doubt.

They had to resign from the Southern League - just two years after being a play-off game away from moving up to the National League North.

But, led by first team secretary, Steve Cartwright, and youth team secretary, Wayne McDermott, Coalville were admitted to the United Counties League after re-entering non-League football at step 6.

It meant quick work behind the scenes - but the Ravens will play on next season.

They announced the UCL move last Monday - and a new manager in ex-Coalville captain, Ash Brown, just 24 hours later.

But Wayne told Coalville Nub News that the hard work begins now, after frantic efforts to keep the men's senior team alive after being set a 72-hour deadline.

He said: "Even if we'd ended up in something like the Leicestershire Senior League, I think that would've been too low to get the engagement from the fans and to be able to afford to keep football running.

"It was a hell of a 72 hours to be honest with you.

"There was a lot of work to do, but we met the deadline and we're pleased with the outcome. Now the real work starts."

Photo: Coalville Nub News

Wayne explained how the club would now be funded after being re-organised behind the scenes.

He said: "We'll have a lot of smaller sponsors, perhaps companies that can afford to support us with £2,000 a year or so.

"But one year that might be affordable, another it might not be. It makes it easy for people to come and go, while also having a nest of money to make us sustainable.

"That's one of the first things we've been working on, and from the feedback we've had, there are people on board already.

"Some of the older sponsors are still there - they still want the association with Coalville Town.

"There'll be meetings with potential investors and a supporters' meeting as well.

"But we need more people to buy season tickets, turning out and rally around the club."

Wayne admitted that the work involved in such a short space of time had to be done - or there would have been no senior men's team.

He added: "You have to take it on board and get it done.

"Plus we put together the knowledge we already had - and to be fair to Glyn Rennocks, he helped us with whatever information we needed and the questions we had.

"But Coalville Town has to be run differently financially now.

"It will continue to be the case that the 900 kids who play here will not be subsidising the senior team, that's never been the case.

"The youth set up has a 3G pitch which gives us a better facility and adds interest to the ground.

"Players coming here next season will see we have a great set up. Nobody else has those facilities at step 6."

But now Coalville need a fresh squad of players to make sure they are ready for pre-season and an August league kick-off.

Wayne added: "We've got Ash in with an experienced managerial team so that's in place.

"There's a couple of months to get friendlies in place, but we won't be having the Leicester City XI here now, it's not the right level.

"But we'll get back there."

• Coalville Town have now organised a supporters' meeting to discuss plans for next season - this will be held at Jack's Bar next Wednesday (June 12).