Just a week after the news that Bolton Wanderers staff were forced into using an emergency food bank to feed their families due to unpaid wages, fans from another League One club based in Greater Manchester have had to intervene to help non-playing staff who find themselves in an extremely difficult situation.
Bury supporters have now raised £900 in shopping vouchers since the beginning of the week to help staff who have not been paid their scheduled monthly salary on time. Staff only received their March pay-cheques last week - almost two months late - and were only paid 50% of their April wages on Monday.
Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, operations manager Samantha Gibbs said: "The fans shouldn't have to do this, but what we've seen here is nothing this club has ever seen before.
"It's really brought the fans and the staff together.
"We've got about £1,000 in an envelope in a safe and roughly somewhere in the region of about £900 in vouchers since Monday for the staff.
"We're going to wait until the end of the week to see where we're at and distribute those to the most needy at the moment."
It's fair to say that Bury's off-field problems haven't been reflected on the pitch, with the club earning immediate promotion back to League One after an impressive second-place finish in the third tier this time out.
Although the Shakers will be starting the campaign in a new division, it is their ongoing issues behind the scenes which is massively taking its toll on the club.
A winding-up petition served to the Gigg Lane outfit, served by former head coach Chris Brass, was taken over by HM Revenue & Customs over a £277,000 unpaid tax bill was adjourned until 19 June to allow the club to be sold.
"It's fair to say we've been through every emotion possible in the past two months from elation at promotion to the deep depths of despair of not knowing what's going to happen," added Gibbs.
"The staff work very hard for not great salaries so everything they earn they need, they can't afford to be without any of their pay.
"They need to get paid at the end of every month 100%."
Bury kick off their pre-season preparations with a friendly against Championship outfit Blackburn Rovers on 24 July, more friendlies are yet to be arranged before the Shakers begin their League One campaign in early August.
We sincerely hope that they can find away out of their current situation, and more importantly staff receive full payment as soon as possible.
