“IT is about sending a message,” York City Supporters’ Trust chairman Mike Brown has said ahead of tomorrow night's vote of no confidence in the club’s board.

At 7pm, the Trust will hold a special general meeting, as requested by members at the end of last month, to debate and vote on the motion of no confidence in the boards of York City FC and its subsidiary companies.

Whichever way the vote goes, it will carry no obligation on the board’s part to react. If the vote receives a two-thirds majority, it is simply an instruction to the Trust to issue the statement of no confidence.

The Trust must do so within 28 days, though a statement would probably be made within 24 hours, Brown said. He added that it is unlikely that the Trust would issue a statement of confidence if the motion does not get passed.

This is not a case of Trust against club, Brown is keen to stress, and he was clear that the Trust is entirely neutral on the outcome of the meeting.

Rather, the Trust is a vehicle for the vote, and is performing its duties as laid out in its constitution.

“We’re reasonable people,” Brown said.

“The way some people would have it, we’re out to destroy the football club board.

“We’re not - we’re here to make sure the football club succeeds and the board are a big part of the club.

“If the way they’re operating is not right then we have to tell them that.

“That’s all this is. It’s just about sending a message.”

Both fans and Trust have their grievances. Playing at the lowest level in their history, York’s long-awaited move to their otherwise impressive new stadium has been marred by operational hiccups, and discontent from the terraces seemed to reach breaking point after the team’s poor start to term.

Some have likened the club’s decline from League football to “watching a family member going through a slow, painful death,” Brown said.

He suspects the “last straw” was the move to the LNER Community Stadium and the associated problems such as “ticketing, the safety certificate, barcode scanners not working and data protection issues,” he said.

“It’s been a perfect storm and they’ve said enough is enough.

“But you will hear on Thursday night what their motivations (for requesting the SGM) were.”

The Trust, meanwhile, though 25 per cent shareholders in the club, “hasn’t had any involvement in the operations of the football club for at least 13 years,” Brown said.

Still, without the push from the grassroots level, it was unlikely the Trust would have called any SGM.

“There was always the possibility that if something dramatic happened with the club we would have called an SGM but it wasn’t in the schedule,” Brown explained.

The last two SGMs were held in 2006 and 2018, both on the subject of redistributing shares. The 2018 motion, that the Trust’s 25 per cent be transferred to club chairman Jason McGill, was defeated by a two-thirds majority.

York City’s board is made up of McGill, Steven Kilmartin, Dave Penney, Richard Adams and Ian McAndrew. Kilmartin may make an appearance at the meeting to answer questions.

If the no-confidence vote is passed and the board resigns as a result, the Trust has a number of contingency plans for running the club, Brown said.

The Trust is currently made up of 1,045 members, 150 of whom joined since the announcement of the SGM on August 31. After July 1, 451 members joined on an annual basis, adding to 594 life members.

Trust members represent just under half of City’s average gate. For that reason, “the number doesn’t matter in a sense,” added Brown.

The Press has approached York City for comment.