by Andrew Gidley

Steve Lovell and skipper Sean Ray met Ashford Town joint owner Don Crosbie this week hoping to find a way forward for the Ryman League Division 1 South club.

The two-hour meeting at a Maidstone hotel on Monday night, came in the wake of news that several players have contacted the Football Association about the club’s failure to pay wages dating back more than two months.

An FA spokesman confirmed: "The club have been have been charged for failing to carry out an instruction of the FA and they have 14 days to request a personal hearing or respond in writing, so the matter can be dealt with by correspondence."

Lovell (pictured) said: "We did it (the meeting) for the sake of the players to get some direction, so that we can start preparing for next season and play on as a club. We came away with a few promises from Don that things are progressing and it could bode well.

"I feel that there is a bit more light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully things will be a bit clearer by this time next week. We will do what is required to save the club because we all want to stay."

Ray said: "We will find out how much progress was made in the next month but all the details have to be with the FA by next Tuesday."

One stumbling block to a way forward is the on-going dispute between Mr Crosbie and fellow owner Tony Betteridge, with the two believed to be only communicating via their respective solicitors.

Ray added: "The most disappointing thing was the timing of it, because it all happened at the business end of the season and it would be wrong to say it didn’t have an effect in the dressing room.

"Everyone was talking about it, players, supporters, even teams we were playing, but we didn’t know what was going on and whether the club would survive."