Fans at one football club have dug deep into their pockets to save their local team from financial relegation by HMRC.

Wycombe Wanderers were facing a High Court hearing last week regarding unpaid debts to creditors, but a six figure sum, close to £500,000 was raised in time and the club's owner has now revealed that it was due in large part to the generosity of supporters.

The Chairboys chairman Don Woodward explained how 'hundreds of people' had paid in to the club helping to fill the gap in finances caused by members of the Wycombe Wanderers Trust failing to secure a bank loan.

Woodward said: 'When we took over we were looking to replace the bank overdraft that we paid off and we found it much more difficult than any of us realised to get lending in the current world. Whether that was because of football, the history of the club or the market generally, it was and proved absolutely impossible to even borrow half a million against a £5million asset [Adams Park].

'The supporters came and put together a fund which has been lent to the club. We have almost but not quite got to the £500,000. We are very close. It's fantastic but perhaps reflects badly on us that we didn't think to ask 18 months ago.'

He was also vocal in his appreciation of the tax department's role throughout the ordeal, adding: 'It was helpful HMRC weren't as harsh as they could have been. They worked with us and we got through it.'

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