Dearden has endured a tough time at County

The world's oldest club will have their 141-year membership of the League cancelled unless they can sort out their financial problems by the May deadline.

League officials said that they would continue to work to help the club through their problems.

But they insisted the club's administration, which began back in June 2002, had gone on for too long.

"The club have been sent a letter telling them that they have a deadline of May 27 to come out of administration," a spokesman told the Nottingham Evening Post.

"Otherwise, they will no longer be a league club.

"It may be seen as a strong step to take but we have to maintain the integrity of our sporting competition.

"There is an increasing feeling that clubs in administration hold an advantage over other teams who have to work hard to clear their debts.

"Clubs have to cut their cloth accordingly.

"Notts County have been in administration for a long time now and there has to be a cut-off point.

"We will continue to work with the administrators and do whatever we can to help the situation but we felt it was time to focus a few minds and encourage some action, because things have been going on for too long."

Administrator Paul Finnity conceded there would be a huge price to pay if Notts did not meet the deadline.

But he remained confident that the situation would be resolved, revealing that there were two parties who are "very interested" in the club.

"One of the two parties is particularly keen," he said. "We are hopeful that something can be resolved within the space of the next week to 10 days.

"It is a case of watch this space. We know something needs to be sorted out but I am reasonably confident that something is going to happen."