OXFORD United owner Sumrith ‘Tiger’ Thanakarnjanasuth has sought to explain the club’s latest winding-up petition.

HM Revenue & Customs filed the paperwork earlier this month for an overdue bill, which was settled earlier this week.

It was the third time in ten months the action had been taken, but caused more concern as it came shortly after Tiger had reassured supporters there would be no more tax issues.

The U’s chairman has today attempted to clear up the situation, explaining the club had arranged with HMRC to pay the bill on Wednesday.

That went through as planned, but as it was later than the original scheduled date, HMRC’s standard practice is to file a winding-up petition.

Tiger said: “Regarding the HMRC, actually we had already told them we had the funds to pay them on Wednesday, but that kind of process that HMRC have they have to proceed.

“We paid it on exactly the date we agreed, but that is their procedure.”

He added: “I know that all the fans are very concerned. But from January we’re going to plan much better.”

The U’s owner put the unpredictable expenses in the summer and autumn, including the training ground and ending of arbitration with landlords Firoka, as a reason why the club have struggled to keep up to date in recent weeks.

But with many of those now out of the way, Tiger – who indicated more money would be being transferred to ease the process – believes the corner has been turned.

He said: “I don’t think there’s any problem.

“When we stepped into this club there’s a lot of unpredictable expenses that we have tried to sort out.

“Like some of the auxillary charge, the arbitration and new training ground which was a lot more than we expected or planned.

“Some things we have had to move on like the training ground, we have to complete it, we can’t be in the middle and stop, but right now the training ground is around 90 per cent finished.”