Masterton claims Dunfermline wages will be paid today

A further £50,000 was delivered to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs ahead of a deadline as part of the payment plan that was agreed over a £81,000 bill.

The club also revealed they hope to save over £6,000 in monthly electricity payments to Scottish Power, who are owed £13,000 in total, after £8,600 was paid directly to the utility company by supporters. The Fife club also made a “substantial payment” to Scottish Power with revenue generated from the weekend’s home clash with Hamilton and plan to negotiate a lower tariff after seeing their unit charge rise from 7.5p to 19p.

The most significant of these payments, though, is undoubtedly to the players and staff with their patience thought to have been wearing thin after only receiving 37 per cent of November’s earnings at the start of the month.

The club began processing payments yesterday and are confident the cash will be in all of the players’ accounts by today at the latest.

The squad also had to wait until the final week of November to have their October salaries settled in full.

Majority shareholder Gavin Masterton said: “Our recent cashflow situation is well known and we have never tried to hide the fact that this has been a  difficult time financially but we are working to a plan and are now moving into a better  period.

“As a result of having a home game on Saturday, donations from fans, and some great fund-raising by supporters groups, we have been able to address some of the outstanding issues.

“None of course is more important than paying our players and staff and I am delighted to say that we will manage to do that by the close of play tomorrow [Thursday].

“It means that they can all enjoy Christmas, and I want to pay tribute to each and every one of them because both on and off the park they have all given 100 per cent without question. They are a credit to the club and to their profession.”

Dunfermline were boosted by a bigger than usual crowd for their clash with Hamilton on Saturday, while the increased number of volunteers helped to cut costs.

The club recently announced plans to launch a share issue aimed at raising between £300,000 and £500,000.  Masterton added: “We are going to move ahead with this at a pace because it will help to  secure the club’s future in more ways than one.

“Once we have a draft document I intend to give the fans representatives an opportunity – as I promised I would do – to meet with me again and to  comment before the share issue becomes public.

“We have already had a number of notes of interest from fans. We feel that, with the support of our fans, the expertise of [main sponsors] The Purvis Group and the new initiatives underway, including the share issue, we will be on a stronger financial footing.”