WANDERERS’ administrators are working late into the night in an effort to make a crucial breakthrough in the takeover.

Legal representatives are burning the midnight oil in an effort to produce a Heads of Terms Agreement with a potential buyer, believed to be the Football Ventures consortium.

Joint administrator Paul Appleton has provided The Bolton News with an update on a day when a renewed sense of urgency was injected into efforts to conclude the deal.

"I wanted to give all the fans an update on the sale process and exactly where we stand this evening,” he told us.

"I hope that we are now very close to agreeing and signing the Heads of Terms, which will lead to a Sale and Purchase Agreement being entered into and subsequent completion of the deal.

"However, while all parties are working around the clock, there are still some details to finalise. To give fans some idea of the timescale, the sale process of a football club would generally take anywhere between four to five months. We are looking at a timeframe of six to seven weeks because of the urgency of the situation the club finds itself in.

"All going well, these details will be finalised before the end of the week with a completion date of early next week for the sale to be completed.

"I fully understand the frustration of fans - and I share in that frustration - but all parties are working tirelessly to get the deal done and I hope to provide a further update very soon."

Administrators had hoped to sign Heads of Terms last Friday only to experience an unavoidable delay which slowed negotiations through the week.

By yesterday, however, there was a confident mood in the camp and Wanderers fans can now keep their fingers crossed for further progress to be announced between now and the weekend.

Quantuma, the administrators for The Bolton Whites Hotel, were also asked to provide an update earlier today but declined to comment.