THOUSANDS of pounds has already been pledged to a £1 million appeal launched by Wrexham Supporters’ Trust (WST) to buy the football club.

The trust aims to team up with individual fans and outside financial backers to take a majority shareholding in Wrexham FC (2006) Ltd, the legal entity which owns the football club, the Racecourse Ground and the Collier’s Park training ground.

Within just two hours of the bid announcement being made on the trust’s website an incredible £20,000 had been pledged to the fighting fund.

Trust directors were also out in force at the Racecourse Ground yesterday to hand out thousands of copies of a leaflet outlining the plan to fans attending the last home game of the season, against Tamworth.

And WST chairman Richard Owen said, as a result, thousands of pounds more was offered.

He told the Leader: “Just hours after details were first posted on our website we had pledges of £20,000.

“And after we handed out 2,000 leaflets at the ground yesterday afternoon we had thousands of pounds more promised.

“One or two people said they were prepared to put in £500 plus.

“We also had a number of people saying they want to see the fans in control of the club, being run on behalf of the community.”

The trust is fighting against the clock to cut a deal before May 11, when a petition by HM Customs and Revenue to wind up the club over an unpaid £200,000 tax bill is due to be heard at the High Court in London.

That is why officials have pledged to present their business case to the club owners, Geoff Moss and Ian Roberts, within the next week.

Based on the experiences of the 20 football clubs which survived winding up petitions last year, WST says it anticipates its buy-out plan could be sufficient to enable the club to ask the High Court for an adjournment while the trust finalises its investment case.

Mr Owen added: “We have a number of discussions with potential investors, including Stephanie Booth and Stephen Cleeve, and have also spoken to a local businessman who does not want to be named.”

People can express their support for the plan by e-mailing shares@wst.org.uk