The Highlanders will host an Extraordinary General Meeting on Thursday night

Inverness chairman Graham Rae and director Alan McPhee resigned last week

Scott Gardiner will plead with shareholders on Thursday to step up to the plate

Cash-strapped Inverness will on Thursday night beg shareholders to dig deep to ward off the threat of administration. Currently third in the SPFL Championship the Highlanders will host an Extraordinary General Meeting at the Caledonian Stadium.

Last week's resignation of chairman Graham Rae and director Alan McPhee spelled the end of any financial backing from the Muirfield Mills consortium.

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And with every year in the Championship costing Caley Thistle around £800,000 chief executive Scott Gardiner will plead with shareholders to step up to the plate or risk their club become the next Bury.

Cash-strapped Inverness will on Thursday night beg shareholders to dig deep for money

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Spelling out the extent of the club's problems, Gardiner last night told Sportsmail: 'We need working capital. Our revenues are through the floor in the championship.

'We are in the second tier and we can't afford it.

'We have been speaking to some of the big shareholders appealing to them to help us find working capital because we don't have the revenue to continue as we are.

'We need them to step up now.

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'We have done all we can to steady the ship. We have no debt now, no soft loans any more, no bank debt and we own the stadium.

'But unless we have an investment of cash we will find ourselves in a precarious position.'

Despite the SPFL agreeing a deal with BBC Scotland to show Championship games live on a Friday night it's understood second tier clubs earn just 12 per cent of the £350,000 a year poured into league coffers, with Premiership sides claiming the lion's share of the cash.

'We find ourselves in year three in the Championship when the money you have is basically it,' added Gardiner. 'You are on your own. Revenues have fallen off a cliff.'

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Inverness will hold at least one public meeting after Thursday's EGM to allow fans who own no shares in the club to hear the extent of the club's problems and offer potential solutions.

Inverness CT manager John Robertson on the touchline against Partick Thisle last week