LAST week the newly formed Taunton Town Supporters Trust held their first fans forum and gave the opportunity for people to address members of the board.

Finance, debt, management, sponsorship and the future of the club were just some of many topics that were brought up.

Chairman Kevin Sturmey started by addressing the recent HMRC wind-up petition.

He said: "We owe just under £14k, HMRC scan for clubs that fall behind, what the image shared does not show is that we had recently paid a sum to them, or that adjustments we have been talking to them about need to come off the sum also.

"These orders are common in football, and this is nowhere near the amounts that some clubs run with. There is very little likelihood of this progressing any further."

He went on to say that the two seasons the club has spent in National League South has taught them a lot of lessons.

"We will have to do the best we can within what we have, we don’t have extra money for more players," he said.

"As I have said before, lessons learnt and budget will be tighter controlled next season."

And when questioned on the board at the moment and its relationship with the footballing side of the club staff, Sturmey added the future of the club is paramount.

"We are not always as one, but you need challenge on a board, the football club comes first, we may disagree, but we must come to decisions, some are difficult decisions, but TTFC and its future will always be our top priority."

Head of football Rob Dray and his coaching staff were unable to attend the forum as all of them were suffering from Covid.

He did provide a statement which read: "Apologies for not being there tonight everyone, we understand the very difficult times at the moment for the club, losing a lot established players like we have was heart-breaking for all of us, and as you are aware none of the management team wanted any of the players to leave.

"The survival of the club is obviously paramount. Our focus is now on keeping us in the league which will be a big task with the players that are left.

"All we ask is to back the players on the pitch, all of them continue as the management group do to give everything for the club during these very difficult times."

However, speaking at the forum, newly appointed football advisor Paul West said: "The manager told me last night he wasn’t coming, not acceptable he should have been here.

"From what I have seen since coming back a few weeks ago there are two things we have to improve, trust and communication."