CPFC 2010 thanked Lloyds Bank this afternoon after the pair reached an agreement on Selhurst Park, edging the consortium closer to completing their takeover of Crystal Palace.

The consortium finally agreed a deal to buy Selhurst Park from Lloyds, who own the ground's major creditor Bank of Scotland, having been told failure to do so today would lead to joint administrator Brendan Guilfoyle conducting a firesale of players to avoid the club going under.

The group, led by Steve Parish and Martin Long, were locked in negotiations with Lloyds at their London headquarters since this morning before emerging at 4.30pm to announce an accord had been reached.

Spokesman for the group, David Jensen, told the Croydon Guardian: "Thanks to Lloyds intervention the snag we encountered with the Bank of Scotland over the weekend we have been able to be put on the back burner.

"Lloyds got involved and have enabled the takeover to inch closer.

"Contracts haven't been signed yet but all the agreements are in place so we are very close to something wonderful happening in terms of a rescue of Crystal Palace.

"The consortium wanted to make sure Lloyds are thanked for doing what they did in terms of intervening and making it possible for us to proceed.

"Everything is agreed and everything is looking sweet and hopefully the ink on the contracts will be applied in the very near future and we can celebrate."

An official statement from CPFC 2010 said: "We can now confirm that there are no material differences between ourselves and Bank of Scotland regarding the sale of Selhurst Park.

"Whilst its not 100 per cent done we are confident that all the main barriers have been removed.

"We would thank the fans for their support and urge everyone at the ground to leave peacefully as we work to try to conclude things."

The deal appeared to hinge on a "non-embarassment clause" which would give the bank a large share of the profit should CPFC 2010 sell the stadium to developers in the future.

Palace fans spent Bank Holiday Monday protesting outside Selhurst Park and then outside Lloyds headquarters today in an effort to pressurise the sides into coming to an agreement.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was even consulted by Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell, who urged him to prevent the club being liquidated should the CPFC 2010 deal collapse.

The consortium must still agree a Creditors' Voluntary Agreement with those owed money by Palace to avoid a points penalty next season and an offer of 1p in the £1 is expected to be sent out to creditors shortly.