Bolton Wanderers Supporters' Trust Reaches 3,000 Members In Under One Week

The newly-formed Bolton Wanderers Supporters' Trust has reached 3,000 members, just seven days after its initial meeting of interest.

Last Wednesday, 6th January, more than 1,000 Wanderers fans (including club legends John McGinlay and Kevin Davies, and acting chairman Trevor Birch) attended a meeting set up by three members of the BWFCST working group, all of whom were put together by Supporters Direct themselves. These fans are Christopher Peacock, Mike Smith and Ian Bridge. The three of them organised the meeting, which was attended by representatives of Supporters Direct and fan-owned Portsmouth FC, to gauge how much interest there would be from fans if a trust was set up.

The answer was a lot. Over 400 fans filled out 'expression of interest' forms at the meeting, many of which are still being looked at. Shortly after the meeting, Christopher, Mike and Ian appointed Jamie Gregory and myself to form the Trust's Steering Group. It is our job to get the Trust up and running, including building a website from scratch, starting social media pages and registering the Trust with all the correct legal entities. We hope to have this completed in the next couple of weeks, and once that's done, Trustees will be able to stand for election in hope of gaining a seat on the Trust's board.

Last night, just one week after it's creation, the Bolton Wanderers Supporters' Trust reached 3,000 members. That's more than Portsmouth's, and they own their club.

On behalf of the five of us who have worked on this project so far, I want to say thank you to everyone that has helped us get to where we are now. Your support is fantastic and we couldn't do any of this without you. The next target is 10,000 members: do you think we can do it?

To get involved in the Bolton Wanderers Supporters' Trust movement, head to bwfcst.co.uk or check out the Trust's social pages, @BWFCST on Twitter and Bolton Wanderers Supporters' Trust on Facebook.