ACCRINGTON Stanley have eight weeks to save themselves – or the club faces being wound up.

There has been an outstanding £308,000 tax bill hanging over the League Two club since May and they appeared before the High Court in London on Tuesday and were given until October 28 to pay of a substantial part of that debt.

They had hoped to pay it in monthly installments over 12 months but now have to raise the money in the next two months to keep the club alive.

Stanley, one of the oldest names in football, famously resigned from the League in 1962 due to a £10,000 debt but returned 44 years later.

Chief executive Rob Heys said: “We are under an awful lot of pressure to raise this money but we won't let the club go under. We have addressed our budgets and things are going to plan but we do have this tax bill and we need to satisty the tax man and get him off our backs and we need a big fundraising effort over the next two months.

"It is the club's fault there is a tax bill but external circumstances, such as our ground sponsors going bust, didn't help. Now we need everyone to pull together to save the club."