Lewes MD praises Ibbo's role in saving the club
MARTIN Elliott, Lewes FC's managing director has lavished praise on manager Steve Ibbitson for his role in saving the club.
The Rooks avoided a twice adjurned winding-up order at the High Court on Wednesday by raising all of the remaining 48,000 owed to HM Revenue and Customs.
Ibbitson in particular spent the previous week on the phone to those willing to help having heard the likelyhood of failing to raise the full amount would lead to the club's liquidation.
"Steve has made a tremendous effort ever since he took over at the end of last season and even before then in his role as Under-18 manager," Elliott said of his manager, who has not received any wages all season along with assistants Jason Hopkinson and Simon Gough.
"He's shown first-class commitment and a number of us who have been around the club for some time have taken great encouragement from his desire to see us sort out our problems and move forward."
He added: "We are indebted to those people who have rallied around to support the club in its time of need.
"It's hard for non-league clubs to survive in this current climate but this is a massive step forward. You are always going to get ups and downs but what's encouraging is to know we have people who will support us in tough times."
Lewes will be forced to pay the taxman around 1,000 in costs and still owe other trade creditors around 40,000. Their was concern that one of their other creditors might take up the winding up order although this did not happen and the club say they will address their other debts as soon as possible.
Lewes are due to travel to mid-table Staines this Saturday if the pitch has thawed in time. Andy Pearson is expected to return from a tweaked hamstring but Scott Chamberlain is suspended.
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
