The old routine now seems more comforting to Dunfermline Athletic.

The players were leaving training to attend the shoot for the annual team photo when they received news that a Company Voluntary Arrangement had been agreed, removing the threat of the company being liquidated and the club's very existence hanging in the balance. There was relief, but also a renewed sense of purpose.

The pre-season schedule had been familiar, but it was accompanied by an air of uncertainty. Nobody could have been sure that all the effort would not be in vain. While Pars United, the coalition of fans groups, had raised enough money to be the preferred bidders for DAFC plc and East End Park Limited, the company that owns the stadium, creditors still had to agree to effectively receive nothing towards their debts.

Gavin Masterton, the former owner, could also have blocked the CVA, since he alone held almost 25% of the debt and the CVA required creditors holding 75% to vote in favour. Masterton abstained during the creditors' vote yesterday, effectively clearing the way for a yes vote. The £500,000 raised by Pars United will be used to pay any staff who were made redundant and the administrators' fees, and the new owners will also need to meet any football debts, which are thought to stand at around £170,000.

The local community will need to rally round again, since the fan-owned club will only be as stable and prosperous as the commitment of the support allows. Working capital needs to be raised. Dunfermline intend to live within their means, and become rooted in the sporting, business and social communities of the town. The hope is the departure of Masterton, who was unpopular, will attract back fans who had become disillusioned. For the players, though, recent efforts can now be considered worthwhile, since there was the peril that a failed CVA would see them all be made redundant.

"It feels like a huge step in the right direction," said Neil McCann, who is coaching at the club. "Going into this season has been great in terms of how the boys have taken to pre-season, but there's always that thing in the back of your mind, wondering if it was all going to be for nothing. It was that bad for the club."

It has been a period of decline for Dunfermline, but promise has not wholly deserted them. The under-19s reached last season's Youth Cup final and Mark Wotte, the Scottish Football Association's performance director, recently phoned Jim Jefferies, the Dunfermline manager, to tell him the club could continue fielding a side in the under-20s league despite having been relegated to SPFL League One.

There is a statutory 28-day period in which creditors can claim they have been unfairly treated in the CVA vote and, in theory, prevent it from succeeding. That remains unlikely, however, and Dunfermline will start the season without a 10-point penalty, despite DAFC plc not legally being out of administration for another four weeks. Pars United and BDO, the administrators, will work together during that time, and there might yet be a benefit from all the travails since the unity and purpose of the players and staff intensified during the crisis.

"I am more motivated for this challenge than any other," Jefferies said. "This is one of the best jobs I've ever had in terms of the people round about me. I don't know how long the job will take, but we will try to bring back the good times, although we know it will be a long hard struggle. And we will do it the right way and learn lessons from the years lost spending money for short-term gain."

No club would wish to suffer the trauma of an insolvency event, but there has been a renewed connection with the support. Fans raised money by ingenuity as much as generosity, and the scale of their commitment was humbling to others fighting the club's cause. Jim Leishman, who is already an iconic figure at East End Park, was almost moved to years as he recounted the efforts, and that kind of loyalty can be relied upon. Donations to Pars United, as of last night, sat at £114,500, while the club shop has registered unprecedented takings of over £10,000 since the descent into administration.

"From Marvin Stewart in the club shop raising over £10,000, to the young boy who went on the park recently and said: 'Sorry I can't give more, but my dad has just lost his job', before handing over two five pound notes from his paper round – it has been amazing," said Leishman. "You read the letters from people saying they wish they could donate more, but all those pennies added up to thousands of pounds. They deserve all the credit. There were loads of times I faced up to the fact there may be no Dunfermline. There were times we said: 'Where is this money coming from? How can we get there?' But when the backs were against the wall, the true character of people has come out."