I've seen it all at this club...

For too many years Notts County have stood on the brink – either of relegation, even from the Football League itself, or, far worse, of folding completely.

Little wonder Magpies' fans are blinking in sheer disbelief that the club is now on the brink, but this time of what promises to be a renaissance as spectacular as it is overdue.

There are few followers around who remember the only time in the club's 147-year history when there was anything like it.

Then, in November 1947, Notts paid a British record transfer fee of £20,000 to sign Tommy Lawton from Chelsea and, forming an unforgettable partnership with Jackie Sewell, he spearheaded the drive from the old Third Division South into the Second Division in front of home crowds averaging just under 35,000.

In those golden days it seemed nothing would ever go seriously wrong again.

But it did.

The memory haunts me of that night, Sunday, December 5, 1965, when I was told by the club's board of directors there was no way Notts could continue in business, such was the seriousness of the financial position.

Remarkable as it seems, they gave me a free hand to see if the situation could be retrieved. It's history now that Andy Beattie (who lived in West Bridgford and who I approached first) and Peter Doherty, former national team managers of Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively, agreed to work at Meadow Lane as unpaid advisers.

Moreover, their arrival gave such confidence to local businessman Bill Hopcroft that he signed a cheque for £10,000, became a director and ultimately chairman – and paved the way for Jack Dunnett to take over the club in 1968 and appoint Jimmy Sirrel as manager a year later.

I went to Bill's motor auction showroom on Carlton Hill to collect the cheque and delivered it to Notts secretary Chick Heath, whose love for the club ran so deep that tears streamed down his cheeks at the realisation Notts had been saved.

Without Bill there would have been no Dunnett-Sirrel era, and no romantic climb from the Fourth Division to the First.

In August 1986, Dunnett announced a loss of £643,000 the previous financial year, increasing the club's overall debts to not far short of £2m.

Another crisis loomed.

So we came to another unforgettable night, September 15, 1986, when Lifeline was launched at the Astoria Ballroom. The fund-raising scheme, the brainchild of Alf Davies, Bolton Wanderers' commercial manager, was well named, underlining to fans the club was in serious trouble.

I was invited to "front" the proceedings which attracted a capacity crowd of 1,500 with another 300 locked outside.

Hundreds of those present signed up for Lifeline, which still contributes around £80,000 annually to the club.

For me a lasting memory is that it was the one and only occasion when I had the pleasure of introducing to the adoring masses two genuine icons, Lawton and Sirrel, who shared the stage.

This was a long way from being the last crisis to hit Notts. Probably the worst of all was triggered by an intimation by Derek Pavis, who had succeeded Dunnett in June 1987, that he was planning to step aside at around the time of his 70th birthday. Under Pavis's stewardship Notts again prospered, reaching the top flight once more, under a manager in Neil Warnock as colourful and controversial as Sirrel. Moreover, Pavis masterminded the rebuilding of the ground.

In November 2000, a sale agreement was signed between DCP Holdings Ltd, a company wholly owned by Pavis and his wife, Vivien, and Notts Holdings Ltd, a company wholly or largely owned by a genial and likeable American, Albert Scardino. The two parties signed a second such agreement in March 2002. Each time Scardino made an initial financial "deposit" but failed subsequently to pay the balance of the "mortgage".

The consequences were swift and savage. On June 17, 2002, Notts were put into administration with debts of £6m. Scardino had taken a gamble the previous summer of signing six new players at inflated salaries. Three of them – Darren Caskey, Ian Baraclough and Tony Hackworth – were reputedly on more than £100,000 a year each. It failed to produce promotion.

During the twists and turns of the following months it was time to turn to the fans again, and over 400 of whom attended a meeting in March 2003 and agreed to set up a Supporters' Trust, the membership of which quickly rose to 1,300.

Then there came another momentous meeting, involving creditors and shareholders. Both parties were told that without their approval to a proposal to clear outstanding debts, leaving the way clear for the sale of the club, Notts would cease to exist as a Football League entity. In a tense atmosphere the proposal was approved, under which the only creditors who received anything were the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.

A two-man partnership, Raj Bhatia and Frank Strang, was subsequently named as the preferred bidders but failed to complete the purchase. In a face-to-face meeting in his Nottingham office, administrator Paul Finnity told me the situation was "bleak" and "devastating".

Those sentiments were shared by heartbroken fans who sat through a Notts home game against Luton on September 6, 2003, wondering if it would be the last ever in the club's history. It wasn't; the Football League unexpectedly extended the deadline.

On that day against Luton a bucket collection was organised at the ground and raised an incredible £50,000. Another £34,000 was raised with a charity match between Notts and Forest "old boys".

An 11th-hour rescue plan was led by club director Peter Joyce, joined by a former Leicester City director, Roy Parker, and former Notts vice-chairman John Mounteney.

As they battled on there came a sensational development. A long-time but relatively unknown Notts supporter stepped in with an undertaking of substantial investment. Haydn Green turned out to be the ultimate saviour.

The Supporters' Trust played its part. At the end of a dinner-auction at Nottingham's Royal Hotel in December 2003 it announced that, with the proceeds of that night to add to existing funds, it had reached its target of £250,000.

Notts County's business and assets were sold to the Blenheim Consortium for £2.7m and the new board comprised Joyce, Parker and Green's nominee, Andrew Rigby. Mounteney declined to return to the board.

So on December 3, 2003 Notts – at last! – emerged from administration.

When Green's shares were later added to others already held by the trust they gained a majority shareholding of around 60% and took the majority of seats on the board.

At the end of June 93% of trust members agreed to gift their shares to Munto Finance. If they hadn't done so, Munto would not today have a controlling interest in the club.

And Sven-Goran Eriksson would not have made headlines around the world as Notts County's director of football.