Last updated at 11:58, Saturday, 23 February 2013

The chairman of the Carlisle United Trust believes the time is now right to make a renewed attempt to dramatically increase its membership.

Norman Steel

Normal Steel said he hoped an open meeting, held at Brunton Park last night, would be the start of a new bid to boost numbers in the fans' group, which currently stand at "just less than 300".

Steel, the Trust's elected director on the board at United, said: "We think it's time to increase the membership. I have already had several expressions of interest in the last week.

"We hope this will be the start of similar meetings to get things going again."

At the meeting, which was attended by around 40 people, the trust's board accepted they must make big strides to improve their PR, with Steel saying a revamp of its outdated website was among the improvements in the pipeline.

Steel added that recent moves by the umbrella group Supporters Direct, including a major meeting in parliament recently, can lead to trusts having a bigger influence in the running of clubs.

Referring to United, where the trust has a 25.37 per cent shareholding, he said: "I genuinely believe we are moving forward now and we are in a prime position to push on, particularly as we have a director [John Nixon] on the board of the Football League who are one of the major players in this."

The trust again stressed that they would not stand in the way of "a good owner doing good things in the interests of the club".

First published at 11:35, Saturday, 23 February 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk