Fans worried on ownership of AFC Telford

Around 50 people attended a hastily-convened meeting in the club's learning centre, after a public outcry from some supporters.

It came against a proposal to sell shares in the club, which is due to be voted on at the trust's annual general meeting next Thursday.

But Carter insists the vote is merely designed to give the club a mandate to investigate all necessary options to take the club forward.

And he's adamant they would not bind the club to selling shares before further consultation had been taken on board.

He said: "The vote at the AGM is not about giving the green light for us to start selling shares on November 26.

"There are a number of detailed plans which have to be worked through and those details taken care of before we move forward with anything.

"It merely gives us a green light to explore option B further and develop the principles into a full set of coherent documents explaining how the new club structure will work.

"There is much more which has to be done. We cannot carry on as we are, the trust has to change."

Club chairman Ian Dosser added the move was a response to arrest the club's recent slide towards the bottom of the Conference North, and should be a wake-up call to fans.

He said: "We only have 300-400 trust members, so we are dealing with a certain amount of apathy.

"The first stage of the process is to ask members if option B is something they wish the club and Trust to explore further.

"The paper sets out a bare-bones look at some of the principles of option B – and the vote clearly asks if these principles are something that should be explored further."

But a number of fans expressed clear support for Option A, which would see the club rule out any move to sell shares.

Supporter Ollie Jones said: "I come to Telford because it's my town and my team. I want to see the place full of people who feel the same way.

"I want to see us successful, but first and foremost it's important that the club is run properly."

A further consultation meeting takes place at the New Bucks Head Learning Centre on Tuesday at 7pm.

The document offering the two options came in response to a fans' forum in October, where Carter warned the club could fold in 12 months' time if the current form of ownership continued.