AIRTRICITY LEAGUE:BOHEMIANS WILL press ahead with plans to meet with all of the club's remaining players at the start of next week in the hope of striking a single collective deal rather than attempt to head off a court action to be initiated today by the legal representative of two squad members, Dalymount officials said last night.

Stuart Gilhooley, the solicitor representing the two unnamed Bohemians players, said he will lodge the papers required to initiate the winding up of the club today and estimates the issue should come up for a hearing within two to three weeks. Other creditors of the club could, he suggested, join in the action, jeopardising the ability of the club’s board to contain the situation.

Representatives of the board, however, said they will await the documentation in relation to the court action by the two players, who are owed a little short of €10,000 between them, and respond to it through their legal representatives rather than alter the club’s approach so far which has been to seek a collective deal with all 10 of the players who have not now been paid since the end of November.

The club’s stand has angered the players’ union official, Stephen McGuinness, who contends that their inflexibility has contributed to the current situation, in which some squad members have effectively broken ranks in order to pursue their money through legal channels.

“They’ve done that while others have decided against it but people understand why they’ve done it and support them in their case,” said McGuinness. “The club has been completely unreasonable in the stand that it has taken and personally I can’t really understand why they have acted in the way that they have. There’s been a complete lack of urgency on their part and a lack of communication; when this sort of thing was going on at Drogheda United or Cork City, there was frantic activity, you had kids out selling their PlayStations to raise the money but Bohemians have left their players with nothing for nearly seven weeks now and seem determined to do the sort of “one-size-fits-all” deal that simply isn’t the best way forward when you’ve got a group that includes different ages and with different priorities.”

The club disagrees with its PRO, Brian Trench, insisting its target date for backing up the offer it made to players before Christmas was always mid-January, an aim he believes it will be able to meet next week as the level of funds raised nears the €300,000 figure that had been set then as an objective.

There is anger, too, on the players’ part over the terms of the deal which is to be put back on the table next week which amounts to just 13 weeks of net pay in lieu of the remainder of their contracts. As of this Friday, the players will be due seven weeks’ money with the gross figure, it is argued, amounting to not far off what is on offer by way of final settlement.

The club had hoped to avoid such a situation arising by concluding a deal back at the end of November but failed and now the players’ representatives contend the board’s priority had been to meet its obligations up until what was a critical date in the licensing process.

Somewhat inevitably, the club denies this as it does suggestions made yesterday it had received but refused an offer from a third party to provide sufficient funds to settle the matter.

“If that had been the case, we’d have been jumping up and down with joy,” said Trench.

Meanwhile, Drogheda United have launched a scheme aimed at selling the company that owns the club to its supporters with fans being asked to pay up to €1,000 for a share in the new entity.

St Patrick’s Athletic confirmed yesterday former UCD striker David McMillan is to join his brother Evan at Richmond Park.