The administrator of Dunfermline Athletic has pleaded with supporters to continue backing the Irn-Bru First Division club.
Penalised 15 points by the Scottish Football League after calling in administrators, the side dropped into the play-off place with Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Airdrie United.
They now face Forfar Athletic in a two-legged semi-final, with the first meeting tomorrow at Station Park, and the return leg at East End Park on Saturday.
Bryan Jackson, of accountants BDO, is running the club after it was placed in administration to protect it from a winding-up order launched by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs over an outstanding £134,000 tax bill.
Dunfermline supporters have raised almost £50,000 to help the bid for survival and Jackson appealed for them to make "one final push" by turning out for Saturday's match.
He said: "The response from the fans, PARS United, the club, and the wider community has been overwhelming over the last few weeks. A special thank you must also be given to the volunteers who have helped collect donations to the club. The fans have been unbelievably generous and this money has been essential to keep the club going by paying wages and to keep DAFC financially afloat during April and May.
"We need everyone to keep supporting the team in the coming weeks. I cannot stress how important it is that support is maintained. [Manager] Jim Jefferies and the players have shown their commitment to the club on the pitch and the response of the fans has matched this.
Jackson said ticket prices for the match with Forfar will be reduced to £10 and £5. He added: "One final push is needed to keep this historic club going and I believe the fans will come out in their thousands this weekend and in the rest of the play-offs."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article