Peterhead manager Jim McInally will be in charge at Balmoor next season – even if the Blue Toon are relegated on Saturday.
McInally’s side is one point adrift at the bottom of League 1 going into the final round of fixtures and will be relegated if they do not better Stenhousemuir’s result on Saturday.
The Warriors take on Brechin City at Glebe Park, while Peterhead host second-place Alloa Athletic.
If the Blue Toon drop to the fourth tier, chairman Rodger Morrison said McInally, who took charge in October 2011 and is the longest-serving manager in Scottish football, will remain at the helm.
Morrison said: “Jim will be given that opportunity. I know he is hurting and feels like he has let myself and the board down.
“He has already suggested that through his own pride he feels he should maybe go, but I think I have persuaded him to stay.
“We will have the same board and the same manager next year.
“In the event we go down we will try to get back at the first attempt.
“In terms of finances, it would make a difference if we were to go down.
“We have had an economic downturn in the north-east in the last few years, but we have been lucky that we haven’t lost any of our loyal patrons and sponsors.
“It is going to take a miracle for us to stay up as we would still need to make it through the play-offs as well, but Brechin were in a similar position to us last year and they managed to survive.
“They needed us to do them a favour by winning on the last day of the season and they won as well which helped them escape.
“Hopefully we can do the same. Alloa are already in the Championship play-offs so they maybe won’t be playing their strongest team on Saturday, but that is perhaps wishful thinking.”
Peterhead’s struggles this season has been a great surprise given they reached the final of the Petrofac Training Cup last season and finished third in the league only a year ago.
McInally was named League 1 manager of the month for January after guiding the Blue Toon to three wins out of four, but his side went on to win only one of its next 13 fixtures.
Morrison believes a failure to land their main transfer targets last summer has been the main factor behind the fall.
He said: “We ended last season badly. We went on a bit of a downward spiral.
“Over the summer, Jim didn’t manage to get in his targeted players. We pay more to attract players from the central belt. The problem here is every game is an away game for many of the players so it can be difficult.
“We started the season with a lack of new players but we played well in the first part of the season without winning enough games.
“We had a lot of luck during our 19-game unbeaten run last season, but we have had no luck at all this season and in the last month or two we have been playing poorly.
“But we have a good manager and he has brought a lot of success to the club. We just have to put it down to a bad season.
“Wherever we are next season we will have to put a bit more effort into getting our targets.”
The Blue Toon have reduced ticket prices to £5 for this Saturday’s match with under-12s allowed entry free of charge. Season ticket holders are also being granted one free ticket for the match.