Town independent supporters group Blue Action draped a banner outside Portman Road ahead of this afternoon’s game against Bristol Rovers and were approached by manager Paul Cook who engaged them in conversation.

The banner was unfurled opposite the ground’s main entrance in Constantine Road at around 12.30pm ahead of this afternoon’s clash against the second-bottom Pirates.

We understand manager Cook came out of Portman Road to talk to those involved and held a cordial 10-minute chat with the group before returning inside the ground.

Blue Action subsequently released a statement expressing their concerns that the proposed takeover of the club has stalled and calling on owner Marcus Evans to sell the club unless he is willing to oversee “a systematic transformation of the club from the top down”.

Blue Action protests have become more and more frequent over recent months with banners calling for ex-manager Paul Lambert to depart having previously been attached to the gates at Playford Road and the perimeter fence at Portman Road.

Another protest at the training ground led to training being suspended for 10 minutes due to smoke from a flare drifting across a pitch with Blue Action subsequently issuing a statement in which they said national reports regarding the incident were exaggerated.

News of a takeover of the Blues by a consortium backed by US money emerged at the end of February with TWTD revealing just over a fortnight ago that the deal had stalled.

Blue Action was formed at the start of the 2018/19 season with improving the Portman Road atmosphere in mind via banners, stickers and the introduction of new songs, and more recently have produced a fanzine.

Photo: Blue Action

Bert added 18:59 - Apr 2 Reform or sell is a balanced mantra and one that gives Blue Action some credit. As for BA81, well not only has the club declined in its standards so have some alleged supporters who mix fiction with fact and lack any balance to be taken seriously. Evan's will sell, I have no doubt, but let it be to a buyer who is emotionally and financially attracted to taking Town back to where it should have been 15 plus years ago.

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SickParrot added 19:00 - Apr 2 Excellent statement from Blue Action. 100% correct. Very pleased that PC was happy to chat with them rather than treat them like terrorists like PL.
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Jugsy added 19:01 - Apr 2 What assessment has anyone done on the prospective new owners? Whilst ‘Marcus Evans out' is a popular force amongst town fans, surely not if it means falling into the hands of those who are equally inept/unable to stop the rot?
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blueboy1981 added 19:11 - Apr 2 Plenty on here who obviously would make better owners the Evans apparently, problem being they haven't any MONEY .... !!! If they have - then form your Local Consortium, if not stop talking a load of ROLLICKS. Hot Air costs much less than running a Football Club, as you'd soon find out ... !!!
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blueboy1981 added 19:17 - Apr 2 Jugsy - Your post makes too much sense for many, obviously - thankfully someone is clued up, and in touch with reality.
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Carberry added 21:35 - Apr 2 Blueboy, not this argument again? The 'careful what you wish for' one which the owner had to backtrack on in his recent message. Please, stop the notion you can only have an opinion about the owner and the club if you have enough money to buy it from him. What nonsense, really, come on. We don't know what any prospective owner is like, there have been plenty that have been a disappointment in the game but that shouldn't prevent us calling out the disastrous reign of the current incumbent at our club. You keep on thinking what you like but you have no influence at all, Evans will drop us like a hot potato if the money's right regardless of who the new owners are. Please don't fall for the smokescreen of 'I won't sell unless it's right for the Club', he's a businessman who has made a lot of money not by being philanthropic but by being ruthlessly commercial. Perhaps you and your mates could stop calling out people who have a different opinion but want a successful, well run, admired club again. Or perhaps you don't?

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Jugsy added 22:19 - Apr 2 Carberry, I try not to sidecar on posts but surely blueboy1981 is entitled to vent even if it doesn't conform to the popular views? The debate is healthy and hopefully it causes people to think past the pure ‘Marcus out' notion and actually think about what's required for the club. Personally, it's a bit lazy to assume new ownership will change our fortunes, whilst I agree Evans has run our club poorly the ‘be careful what you wish for' sentiment is a good one because we are beyond fixing our club by flicking a few switches. Not that I'm suggesting you're saying that. I really rate Paul Cook as a manager but under Evans I don't believe we'll see much difference to that of Lambert. Evans did save this club at one point, there wasn't a long queue to take on our debt of which his predecessors managed to get us in.

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Draws_apoint_ added 22:36 - Apr 2 Da Gremloid comments are so very true we not in a good position at the moment but i might be wrong do we want to be owned by a consortium that has no care to our history. M Evans has made mistakes let's see where the Cook era takes us first
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Carberry added 23:12 - Apr 2 Jugsy, of course he is free to have his opinion but the validity of his argument is what I question. We all want a return to a successful football club but it's pretty clear after 13 years that Evans won't deliver that, as the inexorable decline clearly illustrates. He didn't come along as a knight in shining armour when he took on the renegotiated debt, he did it because he thought the job of getting the club into the Premier League was achievable and he would make himself a shed load of money. That was, I honestly believe, his motivation and where are we now, scratching around in the 3rd tier of English Football with a poor, oversized playing squad and a dysfunctional administration. So don't tell me I can't criticise the owner or the lack of management expertise because I don't have the funds to buy the club or be able to suggest someone who can. I agree with you that Cook will have the same lack of investment to contend with but maybe he'll get a better tune out of the players he's left with and those he recruits at the end of the season?

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leroy2488 added 01:23 - Apr 3 When Evans does go, the first thing to improve is the scouting system, you only have to look at clubs like Peterborough or Brentford to see how important it is. They don't buy expensive, they sell expensive. Experts find the next lower league player that can improve massively over a couple of seasons, then sell on. The academy will only work as it should when it's top tier and the best players aren't taken away by teams with top tier academy's. The amount of money Evans has wasted on silly decisions, he could have employed Peterborough and Brentford's while scouting networks over and over.

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BangaloreBlues added 09:05 - Apr 3 I only feel sad at all of this. Sad for the club, sad for us fans, sad for the players, and sad for the staff. I am even sad for Marcus. Yes, I did say that. I am not suggesting I am in support of his abilities to run this football club, I am sad for him as a person, since he has put a lot of his wealth into this club but it has failed miserably and, like the article says, we are at our lowest league position for 60 years. Personally, I do not feel that it has been a lack of investment. I think the obvious reason for our current predicament is the assignment of dreadful managers, one after another, and Paul Hurst has got to be one of the worst managerial appointments in football history. Roy Keane, Lambert, are two of the others. MM was a great choice, but things became stale after many years and change was needed at that time. The appointment of Paul Hurst was undoubtedly the worst decision ever made by this football club. Paul Cook is definitely the right choice for this team, but we will probably have to wait until next season for real progress. First of all, the entire team needs an overhaul, but what money will be available to do that?

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