St Albans city chairman John Gibson questions Saints City Trust

12:10pm Wednesday 3rd February 2010

By Simon Mail

St Albans City chairman John Gibson has questioned the motives of the Saints City Trust after they rejected the club's directors' plea for additional financial support to avoid further budget cuts.

The divisions within the club widened after the supporters' trust issued a firm response to last week's open letter from the Blue Square South side’s directors.

In the letter, the directors claimed they asked the trust to donate £6,000 which would have led to a shareholder doubling the contribution to the club. But the trust has not been invited to the last two board meetings and the offer has since been withdrawn.

Gibson wants the trust to help out by giving some of the money gained from shirt sales and raffles back for the day-to-day running of the club.

Gibson said: "If the supporters trust refuses the club in its hour of need it begs the question what it is all about. I just cannot understand why they refused the offer. If they want to keep the money but the club gets relegated then don't blame me. You have to question the motives of people on the supporters' trust."

He also reiterated his willingness to step aside if an able successor is ready to take over at Clarence Park.

Gibson said: "If somebody wants to take over then be my guest. I've done an eight-year stint here and been slagged off from pillar to post. It can be soul destroying but I've said all season I have no problem if someone wants to get involved with the club."

But the trust, which already has a revenue share agreement with the club, responded to the letter by insisting they were not prepared to risk the club's long-term future by gambling on immediate success.

Acting chair of the trust, Laura Graham, said: "We are deeply concerned that the board appear to be having difficulties with the finances of the club, particularly the wage budget and are prepared to back the difficult decision to cut it if this means that the club will not get into even more severe financial difficulties."

Vice-chair Ian Rogers said: "The board appears not to have learned the lessons from past failures. We've seen our club fall down before, because it bet the house on promotion and many clubs are now failing because of this. We will do all we can to resist this happening again at St Albans City.

"The board just seem to see us as a cash cow but this is not the reason the trust was formed. It is not there to hand over large chunks of money with no explanation where it is going. There is no sustainable business plan."

Saints boss Steve Castle was also feeling the strain after his side's abject 2-0 home defeat to Bath City on Saturday.

Describing the display as "unacceptable", he said: "It's out of my domain. I get given a budget and try my hardest to keep it.

"We have lads at the college and scholarship lads and ones coming on loans for next to nothing.

"I'm calling favours in left, right and centre. This is what it is at the moment. Is it impacting? I'll let you judge that.

"We've had two games now losing 5-0 and 2-0. Yes, they've been teams in the top half but we all have the advantage of the internet and websites and lads are not silly. They're looking at what's happening and maybe feeling a little bit unstable."

Castle called on his players to ignore the problems off the pitch and concentrate on getting back to winning ways on Saturday in their home game against bottom side Weston-Super-Mare.

He added: "They need to put all the bits and pieces going on off the football pitch to one side and concentrate, once they get over that white line, on winning a game for their team-mates, the football club, the supporters and for me.

"The moment they are not trying over a big period of time we might all have to reassess things but these lads are entitled to a blip. They have to let things get out of their minds and just look at the football because the other things they can't control."