"We always knew this season would be one of the most difficult in the club's history" said Brian Burgess, Chairman of the Brentford supporters' trust, Bees United, speaking at Fans Forum at Griffin Park on Tuesday 9 September.

Six months ago we were facing the prospect of the club going into administration, moving out of Griffin Park and ground sharing at Kingstonian.

That the club is able to celebrate its centenary year at Griffin Park is to a large extent down to the efforts of the Brentford supporters.  It is the supporters? cash which is keeping the club going at the moment. In the short term there are no other solutions.

Many football clubs, apart from the handful with international brands, are in a financial mess. Brentford is no different. But with the help of Bees United the club is facing up to the harsh realities of the current environment.

The difficulties of clubs like ours are not as a result of what has happened in the past four months but what has developed over the past four years.  Bees United are at the forefront of the national movement of supporters trusts. Bees United has the respect and admiration of supporters? trusts at other clubs as a result of the progress we have made in the past two years.

The Bees United strategies for short, medium and long term are to:

• Keep the club alive by sensible management and strenuous fundraising efforts
• Maximise the revenue we can earn from Griffin Park
• Arrange the necessary financing to exercise the option to purchase the majority shareholding in the club, by developing a bankable project for the new community stadium and transport hub at Lionel Road in conjunction with the redevelopment of Griffin Park for housing.

There are no quick fixes:

• no quick fixes to our financial plight
• no quick fixes in our quest for promotion
• and no quick fixes in our project to develop a new stadium

The bottom line is that we all have to pull together to keep Brentford Football Club alive.