NEW acting chairman Andy Straker has vowed to get ailing Southern Premier Division club AFC Totton back on its feet – “or die trying.”

Buoyed by a positive response to Wednesday’s full members’ meeting, Straker, who heads the Stags’ new interim executive committee, says he is fed up with businessmen “promising the earth and doing nothing apart from pushing the club towards the cliff edge”, writes WENDY GEE As regional organiser of Britain’s biggest trade union UNISON, Straker, pictured, is used to banding people together to fight for a common goal.

And that is precisely what he and fellow committee members Graham Speechley-Price (vice-chairman commercial), Rob Lomax (vice-chairman football) and Nick Ferguson (accountant) plan to do to drag Totton back from the brink.

This time last week, the only offer on the Totton table was from Testwood Park Limited, headed by neighbouring Totton & Eling FC’s chairman Ed Holmes, who proposed to take on the club’s £185,000 debts and buy the Testwood Stadium freehold for £1.

But, following meetings with Hayling Island businessman Ferguson last weekend, a new committee was hastily formed with a view to keeping Totton as a members’ club and rallying fans’ help.

Calmore-based Straker, 47, has supported Totton since moving down from Aldershot eight years ago.

He said: “Up to now, the members feel they have been lied to and misled. That might not be the case, but it’s the way they feel and the way I feel too.

“Promises have made, but not a single one has been implemented.

“But for the first time in months I saw the members go away on Wednesday relieved to have been told the truth and feeling that the club has started to go forward.”

Totton have paid their competition fees to the FA and Southern League for 2012/13 and Straker is confident they can finish the season.

Team boss Steve Riley has agreed to stay on and work with a much-reduced budget. He has already lost star players like Mike Gosney, Jono Davies and Richard Gillespie, but crowd favourite Nathaniel Sherborne is staying put.

“We need to pay off the debt and pay the players as soon as possible and the members have agreed to assist by putting their own money in if they can afford it, doing fund-raising events and finding ways to use the club more,” said Straker.

“But what we don’t want is people just putting money in a big, black hole called ‘debt’. They need to know they are getting something out of it.

“We’ll log down any money people give us, put it into an account and go back to them with some propositions.

“We’ve suggested converting the money into shares that hold the ground or doing what Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) do with shares of the pitch.

“That way the supporters would own the club as much as anyone else and never again could someone offer to buy the ground for £1 without convincing the pitch owners it’s a good idea to sell. “CPO said ‘no’ to Roman Abramovich when he tried to move Chelsea to Battersea.

“I don’t know if Totton’s members would go for it, but I’m going to contact CPO to find out more.”

Holmes remains interested in helping Totton, but said: “I’m not going to give them money to fritter away without me having control of it.

“I suggest Mr Straker contacts me to talk through the problems in a business-like way.”

Asked if he would consider talking to Holmes, Straker said: “We won’t say ‘no’ to anyone without listening to what they’ve got to say.

“They can come to us with ideas and if we like what we hear we’ll make the members aware of it.

“But if Ed Holmes really wants to get involved, he’s going to have to convince me that deep down this is about AFC Totton and not some other plan.”