ROSSENDALE United are back in business – and will play their make-or-break game with Winsford United on Saturday.

But owner Andrew Connolly says the club needs support from right across the area in order to survive.

The Stags were thrown into crisis when the water supply was cut off to the club’s Dark Lane ground leading to manager Paul Colgan walking out with his coaching staff.

Games against Runcorn, Squires Gate and Ramsbottom United were postponed in the aftermath with Vodkat League chiefs warning the club would be expelled from the Premier Division if they did not raise a team to play the leaders.

Connolly arrived back in the UK yesterday and assured the Vodkat League the game would go ahead after the water was re-connected – and says talks over the 113-year-old club’s future will take place next week.

Connolly wants to remain hands-off but was thrust into the limelight when chairman Steve Hobson walked out in December and on his return from the United States, he told the Lancashire Telegraph the people of the Rossendale Valley must back the club.

Connolly said: “I spoke to the league and hopefully if we play our next fixture at home then we can carry on from there.”

Ex-players Chris Brooks and Jamie Baguley have agreed to jointly manage a new Stags side for the arrival of Winsford, while former Darwen boss Steve Wilkes has also expressed an interest Connolly added: “The club is in the last-chance saloon now. It is now up to the public, the people of Rossendale, to come out and support us.

“It is now a mad rush to get everything ready for the game on Saturday. Then we can get together and come up with some kind of idea about where we go from here.”