On Thursday 24th June, a group of Preston North End fans got together at The Lonsdale Club to discuss the possibility of forming a new fans' group, with the hope of following on from the good work the now disbanded ISA has done in the past.
One unusual thing about our beloved club, is that we currently have no critical/independent forum through which to express our views to the board. This is something that most, if not all other clubs, do possess. At the moment, the only way we can 'vent our spleen' is by phoning the Radio Lancashire phone-in on a Saturday evening or by writing a letter to the Lancashire Evening Post. This is all well and good, but as we all know, you can get cut off on the radio and your letter may not get printed in the paper. We at one time we had a superb fanzine, 'Pie Muncher', but that is now under the guise of 'Raising The Coffin' and is published by the club.
Mark Holt was the 'compere' for the night's events, a self-confessed lifelong North End supporter, and one who is unhappy with the current status quo. He set out from the start of the meeting that he was not interested in becoming a one-man crusader, he wants us all to get together and form a strong band that will make BAXI sit up and take notice of us. He continued that we, as supporters of Preston North End, and paying customers, have a right to have an input into the way our club is run - the current owners at the moment have a free reign, and this is not acceptable.
The meeting continued with the 50-60 people in attendance coming up with questions that we would like to put to the board. These ranged from 'Why did we not spend money during last season' to 'Why are the prices of our season tickets so high in comparison to our local neighbours such as Blackpool and Burnley?'. It was found that everybody had different gripes, but gripes nonetheless.
After what amounted to a brain-storming session, the main point that everyone was agreed upon is that we are determined to force BAXI into being more honest with us.
There is certainly a section of fans that believe that we avoided promotion deliberately, and this is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. Not once has Bryan Gray come close to apologising for the mistakes made during last season - the fact  that no-

one can deny is that we blew our best chance of returning to the first division for a very long time, and I believe the consensus of opinion is that this was down to BAXI's failure/refusal to invest in quality players before the transfer deadline.
We are currently feeling very let down after a season of such promise, and the only official feedback we have had from the club is a newsletter through our doors in which Mr Gray attempts to 'prove himself right' over the appointment of David Moyes. If I may quote a particularly patronising statement from said publication: "A few weeks have now passed and, as was to be expected, the Board in general and the Chairman in particular, are being criticised for their lack of vision, failure to invest, etc, etc. I have come to accept that recriminations are an unfortunate aspect of football life for some people. Personally, I think this is negative energy, which could be better spent building for the future."
For the Chairman to say this demonstrates a total lack of respect for the fans, and he has succeeded in insulting our intelligence yet again. None of us have 'booed' whilst at a game or criticised the players in any significant way, yet he still accuses us of transmitting negative energy. The fact is, nothing has been achieved where it should have been.
However, the meeting was very constructive, with the vast majority agreeing that we should meet again in the near future to attempt to set up the group on a formal basis.
What I would like now is for fans who did not attend the meeting to show an interest in attending the next one, so that we can get an idea of the level of interest. If you do not feel it is necessary to form a fans' group, than I would still appreciate your feedback. You can e-mail me by clicking here, and I will of course pass your comments on to the relevant person(s).