EX-WORCESTER City director Mike Davis supported claims then-manager Carl Heeley had drafted a budget for the club prior to last season but insisted: “I cannot imagine him hoodwinking people.”

Heeley refused to confirm or deny that he had “prepared the draft budget for the company”, an assertion emanating from an unverified social media account understood to belong to former City board member Jeremy Pitt.

On the back of more than £290,000 worth of losses for the financial year up to May 2017, chairman Anthony Hampson said Heeley had exceeded a flexible budget of between £7,000 and £8,000 per week and had been “slow to act” in cutting back as agreed.

The City chief reported an increase of £65,000 in player wages and expenses in 2016-17 with club accounts stating the total for the previous season had been £287,408.

Heeley, who resigned as boss in January 2017, quit the board in July 2016 shortly after Davis, Pitt and Rob Crean had ended their directorships.

The posts on City Banter Board, an unofficial forum for fans, suggested Heeley’s proposed budget had been amended and agreed at a board meeting in May 2016.

Davis said: “Without remembering the figures involved, that is true, yes.”

There were further claims the sums had been "less than those monthly budgets suggested by the chairman” and that “no additional spend was allotted to fund a cup run”.

Davis added: “The emphasis given to Carl was that we needed to stay at the level we were at.

“The agreement was that the playing budget would always be reviewed in January. It would be dependent on success on the pitch, which included the FA Cup.

“I don’t know where that money went. It all came as a huge surprise that the losses leapt to what they did."

Having declined to offer an estimate for the figures recommended by Heeley, Davis explained: “As much as I tried, the events that took place up until my resignation finished off my interest in what was happening. I would occasionally go to games but that was about it.

“My impression of Carl was that he was an honest man who did the job to the best of his ability.

“I cannot imagine him hoodwinking people. That seems to be the underlying accusation, that he somehow increased the budget without the board being in control of it."

But Davis, a fan for more than 70 years and board member of Worcester City Supporters' Trust, did argue Heeley had to shoulder some responsibility for what was spent.

“There was always communication between the chairman and manager on everything the manager did,” he added.

“The manager had a responsibility to the chairman and the chairman had a responsibility to the board to see that the agreed budget was being adhered to. It was joint responsibility, definitely.”

Davis ended with a withering assessment of the communication coming out of City.

“I feel very despondent,” said Davis, who was on City’s board from April 2010 until he resigned in July 2016.

“I have supported Worcester City since the age of five and the whole thing makes me feel very unhappy.

“To be honest, I want nothing to do with it the way things are at the moment.

“My aim was always to communicate with supporters in general. To a degree I think I achieved that, on my own I hasten to add.

“Since then there has been a lack of communication. That’s what really saddens me about the club and situation it is in now.

“Lee Hughes said he had learned of certain situations through the press. That shows a sad failing in my opinion.

“A sports club is far more than a board of directors or the players, it is everyone who is interested. That should be the basis on which clubs operate, it should involve everyone and that hasn’t happened.”

Pitt and Crean were unavailable for comment.