Yeovil Town chairman Martin Hellier and manager Mark Cooper shared their open and honest views on Tuesday night as the club held a fans forum at Huish Park, which was also live streamed on YouTube.

The duo took questions from the fans in attendance and offered their thoughts on the season so far and also what the future may hold for the club.

While Cooper has stressed for new players to help with the side’s play-off chase, which has hit a dent after three consecutive draws and a defeat against National League leaders Forest Green Rovers since the turn of the year, the gaffer was very much of mind in the club’s need to develop great facilities off the pitch in order to offer something for players to join.

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As for Hellier, who also appeared in a recent interview on the BBC, he spoke of the club’s finances and what he had inherited after taking the club over last season.

Answering the fans’ questions, Hellier said: “It’s obviously in a far more stable position than it was.

“I’ve said it a few times, the state of the club when I came in, the very first I had on the first I arrived was from HMRC saying we’re going to wind you up tomorrow if you don’t pay this large amount of money, and by the way you’ve got to pay that large amount of money next week as well.

“So the first ten days were probably five digit numbers everyday to solve that, so we probably cleared half a million pounds of debt within ten days of arriving.

“It’s no secret you have members of staff selling little bits and pieces on eBay to pay £50 bills, £20 bills and so on, so that was the first thing steadying the ship as in it was completely capsized.

“We’ve continued up until now and we probably put £3.8 million into the club since we arrived, money which undoubtedly we’ll never get back, but that’s my problem.

“It’s in a far more stable position than it was, it’s still a tough gig, with any club that’s below the EFL and when you talk about EFL you’re talking about maybe breaking even.

“But we’re in it for the long run, we’ve done it because we love the club.

“I think most clubs in this league exist for as long as the chairman wants to carry on doing it and that’s the blunt fact of it. It’s very hard to make the numbers work, but we came in with a long-term vision and the EFL was our target and we’re still on that journey.”

As for the Sport England loan, Hellier added: “He [former chairman Scott Priestnall] would even tell me when he was selling me the club, he said don’t worry about that, that’s not a debt.

“Sport England intend for that to be paid back. I was fully aware of that when I took the club. It is a creditor, the club benefitted from it - well I’m assuming - but it’s on a creditor’s list, it’s got to be paid back.

“Sport England are being very accommodating, they understand we’re not the only club that’s had that loan or the only club that’s obliged to pay it back.

“We certainly don’t do the rhetoric ‘don’t worry about it, no-one’s ever going to pay it back’. You can’t say that, if that was the case, scrub it off the creditor list. But it’s there, it’s on now, I’m aware of it, you add that to the land and everything.

“I’ve found Sport England to be more than reasonable on the terms of that.

“That sort of debt can sometimes take priority, all other debts should be subordinated below that as part of the agreement, but I think we’re alright on that and there’s plenty of other clubs in that position as well.”