A WINDING-up petition against Bury FC was dropped during a brief court hearing today.

Lawyers acting for HMRC brought the proceedings against the Shakers over an unpaid £156,000 tax bill.

However, a registrar at the High Court in London dismissed HMRC's petition to have the club wound up after hearing the debt had been paid in full. 

Bury FC has been directed to pay the costs of holding the hearing.

The tax bill under scrutiny related to a payment for December.

In January, the club's chairman Stewart Day said the bill was paid seven days late due to an administration error, saying it was partly down to an unexpected shortfall in cashflow following the postponement of their Boxing Day clash at home to Barnsley.

He said he was frustrated that HMRC had decided to take things down the legal route.

Mr Day added: "I know HMRC are very strict on sporting organisations and have difficulty with things.

"We always pay HMRC, we’ve never not paid our bills.

"We had a fixture postponed on Boxing Day that was going to bring in a lot of revenue as well, against Barnsley.

"There was just an administration error that was paid in full about seven days late from when it needed to be done.

"But HMRC wanted to try and take it down a legal route, which is a bit frustrating.

“It wasn’t a case of us not paying the bill, we don’t owe them a penny.

"It’s frustrating now that we’ve got to go and pay extra legal bills to have things removed when we don’t owe them a single penny at this moment in time.

"We continue to pay our bills, we continue to progress forward but they are trigger-happy with football clubs.

"I speak to a lot of (football clubs) and they all have similar sorts of issues with them.

"It’s frustrating now because ultimately people look at it and go ‘oh, they’ve not paid their bills'.

"We have and we want to reassure the fans, we will always pay the bills.

"We continue to move forward as well. But they (HMRC) are just a little bit too trigger-happy, unfortunately.”