TORQUAY UNITED say they plan to remain a full-time club even if they suffer relegation to the National League South.
The Gulls dropped to the bottom of the National League table on Tuesday night after Kidderminster‘s win against Eastleigh.
They are ten points adrift of safety but they do have 17 league games left to secure their status in Non-League‘s top flight.
The club were only relegated from League Two in 2014 and had to cut costs following the departure of lottery-winning owner Thea Bristow in the summer.
The Gulls are in early talks to move to a new ground on the outskirts of Torquay and chief executive Steve Breed says the plan is to remain full-time regardless of what division they are in next season.
Breed said: “There are no plans or thoughts at this moment to doing anything other than being a full-time club.
“We have to build plans for staying up and for going down. It’s not a defeatist attitude, but we need to be prepared if the worst happens and we are relegated this season.
“I still feel we should be a league club. Everything around this football club is geared to it being a professional, full-time football club.
“I would hate to think we would go part-time at this club, I really would, but finances dictate and I can’t guarantee that we would stay as a full-time club.
“I’d like to think we would, and there’s been no talk whatsoever about us going part-time, but you never know what the situation is around the corner. I believe the only way we’d get up from the league below is to stay full-time.”
