'Clock is ticking' - Gateshead fans fear for future

Results on the pitch were already spiralling downwards when Nellist withdrew his financial support for the club at the end of September.Without that, wages for players and staff were delayed as they waited for fresh investment which looked to have arrived in the shape of Flacks Group.They provided initial funds to pay wages, but last week the American group said in an open letter that the proposed takeover was on the brink of collapse.They said another group, Shoreline Limited, had tried to buy the club in March and then filed court documentation four months later to confirm that its agreement was null and void, and therefore proceeded to enter negotiations with the current ownership.With Shoreline not responding to requests to state that they were not interested in purchasing Gateshead, Flacks Group said that they could not carry on with their intended acquisition."We find ourselves bottom of the league and the club isn't the most attractive asset in the world to anybody," added Geddess."We then find ourselves with billionaire investors round the corner and you can't get it because of a legal issue with someone else that tried to buy the football club."It's such a mess. Then add HMRC in, it's really going to hit the fan." Cattermole was dismissed on 4 October with Ben Clark in interim charge since then.He finally claimed a win in his seventh game in charge on Tuesday as they beat Stoke City Under-21s in the National League Cup.But they have lost all three league games and were thrashed 5-0 in an FA Cup replay by eighth-tier Stafford Rangers to dash any hopes of a decent cup run and even more important, a lucrative pay-day.As such, they have not had a home league game since 3 October to boost deprived coffers while they are believed to owe more than £200,000 to HMRC.A rearranged league fixture with Tamworth for this Saturday had to be postponed too, after discovering that two other large events were to be staged at the International Stadium on the same day, causing a clash.The club's very existence is under threat and Mark Ferguson, MP for Gateshead Central and Whickham, spoke to the Independent Football Regulator on Wednesday."Right now, the future of the club is up in the air and we shouldn't be blind to that," said Mr Ferguson MP."The clock is ticking and whatever action people can take, if they want to get a resolution, that work needed to start yesterday."Their predicament in the National League is bad enough, 13 points from safety, but for fans it goes far beyond those current struggles."On the pitch doesn't really matter at the minute," said Geddess. "We want infrastructure, we want to be in a place where this doesn't happen again the future or the near future because it's happened too many times."