As the February 12 deadline to secure the club’s future fast approaches, Hayes & Yeading manager Phil Babb is doing his best to keep his players focused on the on-pitch battle.

As well as an uncertain future off the pitch, United are struggling to stave off relegation from the Conference South – if they even survive that long.

Back in November, it was revealed that the club would need to raise an eye-watering £300,000 to stay afloat due to ground-share fees and increasing building costs at their proposed future home in Beaconsfield Road.

Speaking after his side’s disappointing 2-0 loss at rivals Wealdstone on Saturday, former Liverpool player Babb said: “It’s down to the chairman to sort it all out.

“He’s given me the mandate to see if we can bring better players in and get the results on the pitch and he’ll take care of everything else, one way or another.

“We’ve just got to keep battling on, it’s not nice to have the cloud over our head. The players know it, the fans know it, so it’s hard. It makes it a bit harder to keep everyone focused and keep their eye on the prize, which is staying in the Conference. If we’ve got a club in two weeks’ time, then hopefully we’ll have a team that will keep us in the Conference South.”

Hayes could have been ahead after dominating the opening exchanges, but conceding just 34 seconds into the second completely changed the outlook of the game.

Babb said: “We are disappointed. Conceding 34 seconds into the second half was a gift, and we’ve given away too many gifts this season. It gave Wealdstone all the impetus to go on and win the game.

“Our final pass on the counter attack let us down. We tried to be too precise on a muddy pitch, with balls bobbling everywhere it’s hard to have that bit of finesse. Our cutting edge in front of goal has been our problem all season, not just today.

“Jefferson Louis was the difference between the two sides, while we all know about Scotty Davies’ quality.

“We tried to get him, but unfortunately we didn’t have the funds available to bring him in.

“But that’s the situation at the club at the moment, other clubs around us have got bigger budgets and can bring better players in.”