YORK City chairman Jason McGill has hit out at the Supporters Trust for their statement expressing concerns at the club’s rising expenditure levels.

Total losses of £3.638million had been incurred and covered by McGill up to June 30, 2016 in a ten-year period since the Malton-based businessman assumed ownership from the Trust.

City’s Trust, meanwhile, retain a 25 per cent shareholding in the club, but McGill has described the body’s financial assistance as “negligible” during that timescale.

He said: “The comments from the Trust certainly do not help when players, backroom staff, and supporters are now genuinely embracing the future with renewed optimism. The Trust’s financial contribution to the running of the club has been negligible for around a decade.

“As chairman and majority stakeholder, I have maintained the club’s full-time status and we have the infrastructure of a Football League club. This was a huge factor in persuading Martin Gray and Dave Penney to join the club this week.

“People sometimes forget that I am also a passionate York City supporter who has the best interests of the club at heart and I aim to get this club back into the Football League as soon as possible. Although I am now spending more time on my other business, JM Packaging, most supporters understand that this is absolutely crucial as it helps to fund the running of the football club.

“Jackie McNamara, as chief executive, is running the club on a day-to-day basis on my behalf. Our aim is to maintain the highest standards and we have a strategy which is geared towards the move to the new stadium.

“Work at Monks Cross is due to begin soon and, once the club has relocated, it will, hopefully, become more self-sufficient. I re-iterate, I will not make any profit from the sale of Bootham Crescent.”

Looking ahead to this afternoon’s home game against Brackley Town, McGill added: “I sincerely hope all true supporters will welcome Martin Gray and Dave Penney as we all, collectively, seek to achieve the aspirations of this football club.”

In the statement that led to McGill’s riposte, Trust chairman John Lacy had said: “Supporters’ anxieties about the increasing stresses and strains on finance are likely to increase. The Trust is bound to raise questions about the long-term viability of such a high-spending strategy, with still no signs of building at Monks Cross.”