Former Bury director Joy Hart believes the club’s battle to preserve their English Football League status is “looking fairly positive” with today’s deadline looming.

The League One club have been given until 5pm to secure their future, with current owner Steve Dale in talks with data analytics company C&N Sporting Risk over a potential takeover.

However, EFL executive chair Debbie Jevans has suggested that deadline could be extended if only “one per cent” of the deal remains to be completed.

Hart, who protested at Gigg Lane on Friday ahead of the original deadline, told BBC Radio Manchester: “It’s all looking fairly positive, but one can never tell until the final whistle, as my father used to say.

James Frith, Labour MP for Bury North, told Tower FM: “The deadline of 5pm today looms large.

“There’s a huge amount of work still to do in what is essentially day three of unravelling six years of mismanagement of the club, after very late engagement from the current owner, and an EFL deadline that recognises an extension was warranted but may yet prove to time us out.

“There’s huge amounts of complication on the structures of the debts and what’s been sold and who owns those debts, that’s where they’re at at the moment, which has itself implications for both the valuation of the club and also the liability of the new owners.

“The new owners are rightly cautious of signing blind on a deal that then renders the club unsustainable.”