Jerry O’Sullivan, of accountants Bishop Fleming, supervised the Company Voluntary Arrangement that ran between 2003 and 2005 and ensured the recovery of Exeter City after the transition to supporter ownership.

At a crucial time in the history of Exeter City a technical term - Company Voluntary Arrangement or ‘CVA’ - was an unlikely entry into the vocabulary of many a Grecians supporter as they followed events behind the scenes as avidly as those on the field of play.

In City’s case the CVA, which began on 16 October 2003 shortly after the supporters’ trust took control of the club, ran for an agonising two years until 15 December 2005 when Jerry O'Sullivan handed over the official documents to end the arrangement which had arisen because of the club’s £4.8m debt as of mid-2003.

Mr O’Sullivan, who supervised the CVA as part of his role as a partner in his firm's Exeter office, later became chief executive and chair of Bishop Fleming.