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Fergie vows to send strong team to help Dunfermline

Sir Alex Ferguson is an inductee to the Dunfermline Hall of Fame © Getty Images

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Sir Alex Ferguson has promised to send a strong Manchester United team to play a money-spinning friendly against Dunfermline in a bid to aid his former club's financial plight.

Ferguson scored 66 goals in 89 league games for Dunfermline when playing for the club in the 1960s and has offered to help the Pars, who face a winding-up order from the taxman because of unpaid debts of £134,000.

The Scottish Division One club are trying desperately to raise funds to keep afloat and the United boss - an inductee to the Dunfermline Hall of Fame in 2007 - responded to an SOS plea from his old team-mate Rory Barry.

"I went down a few weeks ago to see Man United and Everton play and I finished up getting quite drunk with Sir Alex, as normally happens when we meet," Barry told a 'Save Our Club' meeting on Monday.

"We were having a chat about the problems up here and I said: 'What can you do to help Dunfermline?'

"Sir Alex said: 'I tell you what I will do, I will send a strong team up there and that will raise you a few quid.' I just looked at him and I couldn't believe him for a minute."

The friendly against United would take place this summer at Dunfermline's East End Park, which holds 11,380.

Local rivals Raith Rovers have also pledged their support to the 1969 European Cup Winners' Cup semi-finalists, offering to donate a share of the ticket money from this weekend's derby between the clubs if more than 2,000 Dunfermline fans travel to the game at their Stark's Park ground.

"Dunfermline Athletic are, and hopefully always will be, our fiercest sporting rivals ... but they are also our friends, and we would like to offer our friends a helping hand in their hour of need," a statement on Raith's official website said.

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