A WINDING-UP petition made against Swindon Town Football Club has been dismissed, according to the club’s CEO Rob Angus.

Centreplate UK was attempting to have Swindon Town Football Company wound-up, claiming the business that runs the County Ground club owes it around £312,000.

But in a ruling made on Wednesday, a judge decided that there was no such grounds to sell off Town’s assets in order to pay the debt.

Able had previously tried to have the club wound up, but that case was also thrown out by a judge.

The club and Centreplate must now negotiate on the final debt figure after Swindon argued that the actual amount owed is far lower than the hospitality company had originally stated.

Confirming the news to the Swindon Advertiser, Angus explained the current situation. He said: “The petition has been dismissed. The judge is happy there doesn’t need to be a winding-up petition.

“We’ve stated the amount we believe we should pay Centreplate, and now it’s down to negotiation between the two parties to sort out the final amount.

“The debt hasn’t gone away, but the winding-up petition has been dismissed. We have an amount that we believe is fair to pay, based on our records, and they will have to justify any different amount.”

With the club owing around £1million still – down from £7.5million when Clem Morfuni took control – the removal of the winding-up order allows a weight to be lifted off the shoulders of everyone associated with the club.

But Angus revealed the club was “never really that worried in the first place” and “expected” the case to be thrown out.

Despite the small victory for the football club, Town’s CEO admitted there is little time to celebrate much more work must be done to rid the Robins of all owed amounts.

He said: “There are still historic debts and issues to work through, but as you can see from the Advisory Board minutes, they are slowly coming down.”

Town’s CEO says it is not known when the debt will eventually be paid off due to the negotiation that must first take place.

But from Swindon’s point of view, Angus is adamant the figure Centreplate is entitled to will not change.

He said: “The timeframe for this to be sorted is very much dependent on Centreplate. We’ve told them the amount that is due, and we have records which support that.

“It’s very much down to them to either accept our records and information, or if they want to contest it further.”