ACCOUNTS published this afternoon show progress is being made to remedy Wanderers’ financial problems – but that the club could still have a way to go before escaping a transfer embargo.

Fans have waited anxiously for the overdue 2015/16 financial statement to be posted and while some green shoots of recovery were visible in the aftermath of last year’s takeover, there are still some major issues to be resolved.

Wage costs were down from £28.8m to £20.6m and turnover increased marginally by £200,000 to £30.76m, owing largely to the continued excellent performance of the Whites Hotel.

A group loss of £6.7million was reported, although the figures show a profit of £164m, which factors in the £170m waived by Eddie Davies’s Fildraw Limited.

The level of net debt now stands at £26.227m - £15.2m of which is still owed to former owner Davies and £2.5m to former vice-chairman Brett Warburton.

A loan of £5.5m is also outstanding to Prescot Business Park Ltd as part of a commercial arrangement taken out on car park land and offices at the Macron.

New auditors Cowgills were unable to give an opinion on the company as a going concern with the evidence provided, owing largely to the continued dispute between Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth over the details of a loan taken out from BluMarble in March 2016.

The overdue £5m loan, which carries an interest rate of 24 per cent per annum compound, has been at the heart of an argument between the two owners for more than 12 months.

BluMarble have issued a winding-up petition against Sports Shield BWFC which is due to be heard in three weeks.

Without an auditors’ opinion, it is unlikely the EFL will see fit to lift the transfer sanctions which have been in place since December 2015.

COMMENT: Attempting to explain Wanderers' finances in plain English

The report also noted a £250,000 payment to Holdsworth’s Sports Shield BWFC in May 2016 altered the shareholding.

The former striker now owns 38 per cent of shares in the group, with Ken Anderson’s Inner Circle Investment in control of 57 per cent.

Holdsworth was also paid £50,000 compensation plus legal fees following a dispute over his employment as director of football last summer.

The particulars of the sale of the club were also confirmed – with £1 securing Davies’s majority shareholding last March, alongside a £17.5m consideration based on future success, i.e. promotion to the Premier League.