Lewes chief Martin Elliott says it is a massive step forward for the club after agreeing a deal with the tax man.

The Rooks are facing a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs in the High Court on Wednesday over a tax debt of £110,000.

Elliott had previously offered to pay £30,000 as a down payment with the rest in staged repayments over a ten-month period.

HMRC were demanding the money in full but, after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached on Friday when Lewes made an initial payment.

The case will still go to court on Wednesday but Elliott is confident Lewes will be given a three-month adjournment to resolve the matter.

He said: “We have made a payment of £30,000 to HMRC which is what we said we would do back at the end of April and May. We believe we have reached their agreement to three further payments of £10,000 over the next three months.

“It will go to court on Wednesday but if we have reached an agreement one would hope the judge would go along with that and we would get an adjournment for three months.

“Inevitably there is always a risk in these things but it is positive at the moment.

“We would then make three further payments and in three months’ time our debt is halved. It is still at a level which will take an awful lot of dealing with but nevertheless it is a massive step forward.

“We have to finalise that agreement (with HMRC) on Tuesday so it will go to the 11th hour and it will definitely go to court.

“There is a lot of negotiation still going on. We have also been talking to them about the possibility of lifting the winding-up order after that three months or indeed before that.”

Lewes made a last-ditch appeal last week to raise £30,000 which received a positive response.

Elliott said: “We have a significant amount pledged and we wouldn't be entering into an arrangement if we didn't feel very confident we would be able to make those three further payments.

“There has been some frantic activity in the last few days and hopefully we can conclude matters this week.”