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"People were concerned about how we would react. Of course, we were weaker and morale was hit when we sold Anthony Pilkington and other players were being marketed for sale. We got through that period. I know fans have been hit the last couple of weeks about the reality of the situation. But we got our heads around it and were determined to work hard.
"I knew this would be a tough period, not just off-field, but also for the challenges and opponents we would be facing. We've got four tough games coming up, which will be a test of our credentials. But last year we had a similar scenario with our top scorer being sold and our best defender and captain going.
"But we just kept on working at what we were doing. We're still very much a work in progress and if the players keep putting in the same kind of effort and we keep working behind the scenes in the footballing sense then who knows what we can achieve. We need now to get back-to-back wins and a string of unbeaten wins together then I'm confident going into the last ten games we will give ourselves a real chance of replicating last season.
"It's a really tough schedule for our boys and it will be challenging their professionalism. There are players with a little bit more to come and players that are still growing. These boys will need every encouragement and support as they continue to battle hard for this club.
"Financially everything was initially revealed at the end of December. But it was clear to me that there had been issues all along. Certain information hadn't been revealed to me properly throughout the last six months, so I slowly got to feel and understand the club was facing a difficult situation.
"We felt we would be facing a difficult situation in January anyway, but when the gravity of it was revealed to us, I formulated a business plan. You could call it a survival plan, but the ultimate objective of it was that we stayed in business and that we attempted to break even this season and not increase our debts.
"In that plan, up to 12 players could leave, and that's meant a difficult situation for myself, in that I would have to market some of our young players for sale. I would have to leave some senior players out and indicate to them that due to the current constraints at the club they would have to consider options elsewhere for their own benefit and for our benefit.
"Some young and some senior players have left since, and some have stayed. We did our best to fulfill that plan, in the best interests of the club. At the end of last month, I presented the board with a 12-page document, which was more of a development plan. It's still a survival plan, but a business plan to get us through this year, which is only phase one at this stage.
"The other two phases are about how we can develop the squad, the team going forward, and the kind of structure we could have at the club next season, to give the board an understanding of what we can achieve on our current budget."
In team news for County tomorrow definitely sidelined are Northern Ireland international striker Peter Thompson with a collapsed lung and former Morecambe midfielder Carl Baker who has recently undergone surgery on an an ankle injury. Finally defender Michael Raynes is rated as slightly more than 50-50 to play after bizarrely pulling a muscle in the back of his leg while cleaning mud off his boots in training.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Steve Bratt from Walsall, and he will be assisted down the lines by Paul Davison from Cleveland and Bob Roberts from Lancashire. Meanwhile the fourth official is Dave McCallum from Wallsend.