NEWPORT County AFC interim board members Gavin Foxall and Jon Bowkett insist that the Supporters Trust takeover is ‘achievable’ as they prepare for the share offer launch this week, writes Andrew Penman.

The Trust will talk fans through the share offer at a special meeting at Newport’s Riverfront Theatre on Thursday at 7pm.

And having studies the figures involved, which will not be revealed before the meeting, Foxall and Bowkett are optimistic that the dream of a supporter-owned club is within reach.

But the Trust committee members have also warned the Exiles fans that they must back the bid with hard cash.

“We’re confident that, with the supporters behind us, we can achieve this,” said Foxall.

“But if the supporters don’t get behind us in monetary terms then we’re not going to do this. There isn’t a plan B.

“As a group of individuals we can’t do this without the fans’ backing.

“The supporters groups have been fantastic and now we need people to turn up on Thursday and listen to what we have to say.

“There will be two documents handed out – the headline share offer and then a 30-odd page detailed explanation.

“We will reveal what the share offer is, what we’re looking to raise and what the timeframe is and we’ll cover some of the benefits packages in terms of having subscriptions throughout the year.

“People might not be able to put £1,000 in but there will be packages that everyone can afford.”

Bowkett says the Trust is confident that they will be able to rectify past mistakes in the running of the club.

“We’ve identified that the decisions that were made at the start of the 2014/2015 season were not good and that obviously led to lots of problems throughout the season,” he said.

“Whoever decided on that playing budget is history now but that has caused a lot of problems and then obviously they have been fire fighting since the start of last season.

“It’s left the club in a slightly difficult position but I don’t think it’s unachievable to recover. It’s something that can be done.

“We’ve got a lot of the facts now and we can see it coming together. We’ve got a fairly clear picture of what we need to do.”

Thursday’s meeting is open to everyone but only members of the Trust will be able to acquire shares.

Visit the Trust website at ncafctrust.org for more details.