Fans need an end to tug-of-war

8:00am Tuesday 2nd September 2008

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AMERICAN rock group Green Day once wrote a song called Wake Me Up When September Ends.

A phrase that could quite easily sum up how most Worcester City fans feel about the behind-the-scenes shenanigans currently dominating talk on the terraces.

Although the situation has been dragging on for far too long already, this month should finally bring about an end to the power struggle engulfing the Blue Square South club.

That is likely to come at this month’s promised annual general meeting, which cannot come soon enough.

The whole situation should have been sorted out long ago without the need for a public slanging match between the board of directors and the Shareholders Action Group.

I get the feeling there are plenty more twists and turns to come over the next few weeks.

It looked for certain as though a compromise deal would be brokered with the Shareholders Action Group to make the change the current board have acknowledged is needed.

But since those talks faltered, there has been little to give the long-suffering fans anything to smile about or have confidence in.

They want to know their club is in safe hands and are no doubt fed up to the back teeth of all the internal bickering that only serves to tarnish the reputation of the club.

Unlike last season, the fans have turned out in their droves for the three home games to date and thrown their support behind manager Richard Dryden and his team, despite defeats to Bath City and Hayes and Yeading.

It would be very easy for them to say enough is enough and take their £11 elsewhere on a Saturday afternoon. They deserve better.

I suspect one of the reasons fans do stay is because they can see that, on the pitch, the team is making progress.

They want to see success for Dryden and assistant Carl Heeley — two of the most genuine characters you could wish to meet in football.

However, the longer the saga drags on, so one question looms large — is the club about to go into administration?

It is a sobering thought, particularly given what has happened to the likes of Nuneaton and Halifax in recent months.

Not surprisingly, it’s not a subject the club’s powers-that-be wish to be drawn on but chairman Dave Boddy does not seem overly confident in the long term.

When asked if the club would go into administration, he said: “Not in the immediate future. We have got the facilities and plans in place to make sure the club is solvent.”