LEAGUE OF IRELAND:Emmet Malone was at the meeting of Drogheda United followers, which broke up without a survival plan - but the money has come rolling in

WHILE THE Government, employers and unions were again obliged to deny on Wednesday night their "social partnership" might be about to end in divorce, Drogheda United supporters were gathering up at Drogheda' s Institute of Further Education with the aim of showing what a little unity and determination can achieve even in these difficult times.

Some 400 locals braved a horrible night and packed the college's meeting area, to the point where late arrivals must have had serious difficulty escaping the wind and rain and squeezing inside the door.

This was the second public meeting held by the club since the money ran out and the sense of urgency was unmistakable. The first had dwelt, understandably but unproductively, on how things had gone so badly wrong at a club whose prospects had become overly dependent on the successful delivery of a new stadium on the outskirts of town.

When the project failed to win the necessary backing of the local authorities the club's backers finally decided they could no longer sustain United's day to day running costs. Despite having been the country's most successful team over the last five years, the debts now run to roughly €1 million, around half of that owed to the Revenue Commissioners.

In his 70s now, Vincent Hoey has been chairman through the recent good times but played with United in his day and has been involved as long as any there on Wednesday could recall.

An immensely likable and often emotional character, Hoey looked almost overwhelmed with happiness when the club won its first major trophy at Lansdowne Road in 2005 - its 86th year - and his sadness was just as obvious as he paused to fight back tears barely a sentence into his opening address.

The 400 listened in stony silence as he presented a series of stark facts. What it all boiled down to was the club's examiner reckons the club needs to come up with €554,000 - and fast - in order to strike an acceptable deal with creditors and there has been no real interest shown by anyone who would have the wherewithal to write that sort of cheque.

Mindful of the demoralising effect setting the bar so high might have on his audience, Hoey argued that raising €100,000 by the time the club returns to court next week might provide the basis for an extension to the examinership and, beyond that, survival.

At least once, he acknowledged that at least twice that sum would really be required if the creditors were to be engaged in serious negotiation but he would, he said, "deal and wheel and deal again," with whatever he was given until there was no hope left - provided those present felt the club really was worth saving. The reaction that followed from the floor left no room for doubt on that score.

The first few ideas on fundraising were politely shot down for practical reasons - selling advance season tickets would, for example, leave the club completely starved of cash in the event that it is saved - while quite a few of the contributions that followed were brimming with passion but lacking in practical application.

Time after time, Hoey was thanked for the pride he and the club had brought to the town. A league title and a handful of cups put Drogheda on the footballing map not just here but internationally, with Paul Doolin leading the team to highly creditable showings in both the Uefa Cup and Champions League qualifiers.

One supporter, Aidan McCue, stood up to say he had dreamt as a child of United winning the title or the cup and would die a little happier knowing he had seen both come to pass.

Others lamented the fact so many of those who had enjoyed those successes seemed to have forgotten the club in its hour of need. All agreed, though, that in the week to come they would be given the chance to play a part in the rescue operation.

Still, specifics were desperately thin on the ground until a local councillor, Michael O'Dowd, suggested getting the local credit union to allow people to sign up for €1,000 loans with the money raised to be passed on to the club. There was enthusiastic support for the idea, although it must have been of some concern to those at the top table that several of the speakers who followed seemed to suggest that borrowing such a sum in these suddenly hard times might be asking a little too much.

In the front row, Paul Connor stood up to say he had to go to work, prompting some good natured jeering but they quickly turned to applause when he said he was pledging €500 before he left in order to get the ball rolling.

From much further back, Richard Hanlon said the life of his father Nicky, a devoted supporter, had been enriched towards its end by United's success and that on his deathbed he had told his family that he had set €5,000 aside for whichever one of them might encounter a rainy day.

"We're all agreed that he would have considered this that day so the money's there," he said.

Somewhere in between, Aengus McCue was singled out for the several thousand euro he has raised even before an attempt this weekend to run a marathon on a treadmill with the aim of generating a couple more.

Still the meeting somehow broke up without a firm plan having been formulated and it was unclear whether a major opportunity to build on its momentum had been missed.

By yesterday afternoon it appeared not. Every seat had had an envelope and those leaving were asked at the end to enclose some money or make a pledge and by four o'clock more than €50,000 had been counted and banked, while staff shortages meant there was still a large backlog to get through.

Counting was interrupted too by those dropping into United Park off the street in order to give their time or money. A widow gave half of her €200 pension by way, she explained, of a Christmas present to her deceased husband who, she explained, had been a supporter. Somebody else had been on from the other side of the world to give $1,000 and nobody had had the time yet to check on just how much that would amount to.

The fundraising will continue over the coming days in the town and at the club's "war room" as they're calling it. It's still unclear whether Hoey will have enough to successfully wheel and deal the club out of crisis but even if he doesn't the people of Drogheda will, in spite of the downturn, have provided the rest of us with a object lesson in the real meaning of social partnership.