HORNETS coach Darren Shaw has had little to smile about in recent weeks as the club struggles to sort out its finances and stave off a winding-up order for £55,000 from the Inland Revenue, set for 14 January.

But it’s been business as usual for his players and he is delighted with the positive manner in which they have dealt with the situation.

They have provided Shaw with one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak atmosphere at the Spotland club.

He said: "At times like this people forget the players, which they probably have been doing. But as I briefly mentioned last week I just can’t commend them enough or speak highly enough about them.  Obviously there has been a lot of doubt and insecurity around the place but they keep turning up, training tough.  This is our last week of training before we have a two-week break over Christmas and I just hope we can get somewhere in the near future because obviously the longer it goes on the more insecure they become and we may end up losing a few. We have been mixing training up a little bit and the players are looking good. The atmosphere is great and the attitude is really good which is quite surprising. I just said to them we can’t control these things. What we can control is what we do at training and as I have said I cannot speak highly enough of the lads in the squad – they have been absolutely fantastic."

If Hornets can overcome the current financial obstacles, Shaw is confident his team can look forward to a successful season in the newly-named Cooperative Championship One.

He added: "We have worked hard to get the squad we have assembled. It’s a squad we feel is very good and could make a few noises, hopefully towards the back end of the year. But we are going through a bit of a hiccup and nobody knows the outcome of it yet but fingers crossed we get through it and we can start off the new year on a good footing."

HORNETS independent supporters association, the Nest Egg, were set to hold their last and arguably most important meeting of 2008 at Spotland last night. The purpose of the meeting was to try to establish where the association and the club are at on the current financial situation, formulate a plan of action and endeavour to get answers to some key questions relating to the club’s finances.

The Nest Egg were aware pockets of supporters have been meeting/communicating in the last few weeks, but hoped the meeting would provide an opportunity to combine and co-ordinate that activity.