Jim Leishman has admitted Dunfermline Athletic need fans' to offer up their savings and holiday money if the club is to survive administration.

The club's former manager issued the desperate rallying call yesterday as he launched Pars United, a new umbrella group of interested parties that it is hoped will steer the ailing club through its present parlous position and towards a sustainable future.

The Fifers were plunged into interim administration last week and have until April 11 to demonstrate to judges at the Court of Session there is enough hope the 128-year-old East End Park club can be saved. Administrator Bryan Jackson has identified the need for £100,000 of working capital to see the team through to the end of the season, a figure which has been pledged by interested businessmen and supporters based both locally and internationally.

However, Leishman – who was joined at the launch by childhood friend Bob Garmory of the club's main sponsors, the Purvis Group – stressed the pressing need to 'mobilise a community' in the bid to stave off liquidation.

"I think it's reality now, it's really, really sinking in," said Leishman. "Saturday's game is the start of the revival, and we need people to be part of that. We need supporters to come out to save the club.

"I think supporters realise the situation now, compared to two weeks ago. Money's tight. We're asking for people in the community to give up their savings, their holiday money or whatever. We've asked them and asked them, and we're going back to the supporters and asking the ones who maybe haven't been coming to come out and join the regulars.

"We've got that hardcore, they're here, but it's 'c'mon, come and join them, be part of that', because it's a not just a community club, it's a club in the community, it's the supporters' club. Saturdays, especially this Saturday, the first game, is a major moment. We need everyone to turn up. We're trying to mobilise a community, get everyone behind us to save the club."

Dunfermline need at least 5000 people to come through the turnstiles for Saturday's encounter with Hamilton Academical, a figure bettered on only three occasions this term, with their last home game against Falkirk drawing 2879 just after administration was announced. "People are coming out saying 'I am a Dunfermline supporter, we are the Dunfermline family'. If you've got something planned for Saturday you can cancel, cancel it. That goes for all three home games."