A new Deal Town board was voted in at Sunday’s extraordinary general meeting but afterwards David Reid, who was confirmed as club chairman, warned that "there may still be some difficulties in the future."

Mr Reid (pictured) was referring to the the fact that none of the rival group, headed by Steven Bowers, who are fighting for control of the club, had been present at Sunday’s meeting and had sent no apologies.

Mr Bowers confirmed afterwards that his group had not attended the meeting because they did not recognise its legitimacy in law and were still planning to go ahead with their own EGM on April 25.

It means that, at present, there are two rival groups, with two different chairmen, claiming to be in control of Deal Town, but the club officials and members of the Supporters’ Club who attended Sunday’s meeting were told that the process they were being asked to follow was legally and constitutionally correct and had been suggested by solicitors, following Mr Reid’s initial enquiries to the FA and Companies House back in November.

Mr Reid said that an expert in company law had then advised him that only the seven original members and directors of Deal Town FC (2001) were allowed to add or remove directors from the board, not members of the board led by Mr Bowers, who had taken control of the club following what he described as "the alleged merger" between Deal Town and Deal Town Rangers in April 2008.

Mr Reid said: "Although there was an intent to merge the two clubs, there were pre-conditions especially relating to financial auditing which were never fulfilled.

"Even if they had been satisfied the FA had never seen or agreed the changes before they had been passed by an AGM so the draft rules were never properly ratified.

"The FA, therefore, insisted that the club must revert to running on the 2001 constitution, which is what I and the committee have been doing since November."

Mr Bowers, meanwhile, confirmed that he had sent Mr Reid a text message a few hours before Sunday’s meeting asking for the meeting to be cancelled and for fresh talks to be set up between himself, Mr Reid and former club chairman Graham Johns.

Mr Bowers said: "We didn’t recognise the validity in law of Sunday’s meeting, and I tried to take the heat out of the situation by suggesting to David Reid that we held fresh discussions, with Graham Johns taking over as temporary chairman, to try to resolve this situation.

"If a solution isn’t found soon the club could be dissolved, and that’s not a threat, it’s a legal fact.

"But my offer was obviously turned down, and so we will be going ahead with our own EGM next month as planned."