YORK City Supporters' Trust have seen their bid to take over the Minstermen delayed by the taxman for another 48 hours - meaning the anguish for City fans continues.

The Trust had hoped to sew up a deal for the club today when they put their new Company Voluntary Agreement offer to creditors.

The original deal had been rejected by the Inland Revenue at a meeting last Monday, with the process being adjourned until today as the parties tried to thrash out an agreement. But the same thing happened again, with no settlement reached.

The meeting has now been rescheduled for 10am on Wednesday. The ultimate deadline for any agreement to be reached is Friday, 14 days after the original CVA meeting.

Today's meeting was scheduled for 10.30am and adjourned until 2pm, at which point David Willis, of the club's administrators, Jacksons Jolliffe Cork, announced it was to be delayed further.

He said the situation had not developed further and so the meeting would be rearranged.

As reported in today's Evening Press, the Trust have vowed to carry on fighting against what they have viewed the Crown's 'unreasonable behaviour' to save the club they love.

After earnest talks between Jacksons Jolliffe Cork, the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise, plus the Trust, it was believed the way was finally cleared for the supporters' group to take command less than 15 months after it was first formed.

However, the Inland Revenue threw another spanner in the works as they refused the new offer - believed to be 50p in the pound towards a tax bill totalling £80,000 - today, asking for the creditors meeting to be adjourned again, this time to Friday.

To accommodate the tax authorities Jacksons Jolliffe Cork had agreed to ring-fence £50,000 of their fees towards the bill with the Trust paying another £16,000 to JJC, who will then forward that to the taxman in 12 monthly payments over the duration of the CVA. A further payment of £14,000 will be paid by the Trust direct to the Crown over a three-year period.

So the Inland Revenue's stance came as a surprise after they reportedly accepted 10p in the pound from Leicester City and Port Vale.

The Trust and administrator were set to contact the Football League today in a bid to complete the deal. Said David Wills, from JJC: "I'm afraid the news is unchanged from the last meeting in that we are going to have to ask for another adjournment.

"We've been in talks throughout the week with the Inland Revenue and the Football League and the Inland Revenue have requested yet another adjournment."

The Trust met the news with dismay. Sophie McGill, who will be one of the new directors of the club when the Trust's bid is finally accepted, told the Evening Press: "The position of the Inland Revenue is totally unreasonable. It is worth mentioning the precedents with Port Vale and Leicester believed to be 10p in the pound.

"It is another glitch and is unreasonable behaviour from the Inland Revenue considering the serious predicament the club is in.

"We will be in conversation with the Football League to see what they can do and we've been on to local MPs and we will keep fighting away."

The club, staff, players, management and fans were back in limbo despite the Trust's take-over of the club previously reaching the 75 per cent plus approval of creditors for the CVA.

The Trust were forced to step in last week - for the third time - to bale out the club by agreeing to fund the running costs, estimated at anything between £30,000-£50,000. Previously, the Trust had shelled out £92,000 followed by a further £60,000 to guarantee the club's short-term future.

The efforts to get the CVA accepted had already been boosted ahead of last week's meeting by the City players - effectively the club's biggest creditors - agreeing to vote in favour of a plan which would see them taking a 20 per cent deferment in wages.

The Evening Press, one of 145 unsecured creditors, also voted in favour of the Trust's proposal.

Updated: 14:27 Monday, March 24, 2003