REDS' fans desperate to rescue their beloved club from the brink of extinction today tabled a buy-out plan of their own.

Together with undisclosed partners, the fans trust met Wrexham FC's controversial owner Alex Hamilton to put an offer for the club on the table. Wrexham Supporters Trust want to buy Mr Hamilton's 78 per cent shareholding in Wrexham Football Club and also the freehold of The Racecourse ground.

News of the offer comes as The Inland Revenue refused to hold off a winding up petition being heard at the High Court later this month despite desperate pleas from club directors.

Today Trust representatives, who met Mr Hamilton yesterday, say they are optimistic they can do a deal to save the ground.

Trust vice-chairman Rob Griffiths said: "We had a very constructive meeting with Mr Hamilton. We met for almost two hours and presented him with our offer, which would involve us working with partners to acquire the football club and The Racecourse ground.

"We believe that our proposal, if accepted, would safeguard the future of the football club.

"Mr Hamilton has agreed to give our proposals his full consideration and we will talk again in a few days.

"We agreed that the current situation at the club is very serious, but the Trust remain optimistic that we can reach an agreement to safeguard the future of the club and the ground."

Trust members are remaining tight-lipped over who the partners are, although it has been suggested a leading building firm may be involved.

Charles Wardle from the Trust said the names of the partners had to remain secret for the moment because of commercial confidentiality.

He said he could not even give an indication of who the partners were because doing so would jeopardise any potential deal and would destroy the work carried out by the Trust.

Today Wrexham MP lan Lucas said he had been talking to the Trust over the weekend and he believed the deal offered yesterday to Mr Hamilton was a fair one.

He said: "My message to Mr Hamilton is that the time for games is over. He has been given a very fair offer by the Trust and he should accept it and move on.

"It is not in his or the club's interest for it to go in to administration or liquidation. The Trust have come up with a sensible and fair proposal which is a very fair offer, offering him a fair return. He should now go and leave everyone in the town, the Trust, the council, AMs, MPs, to bring stability to the club.

Deserves

"What I would like to see is the Trust to lead a community based club which will build on the massive interest in the town and the area. It is what the club deserves and it is what the players and manager deserves. We must have one of the best managers in Britain in Denis Smith and he should not be undermined by this off the field situation.

"Mr Hamilton must recognise he has been given a fair offer, agree to it and leave."

Meanwhile, remaining directors David Bennett and David Griffiths say they will not be appointing any new directors for the moment and have revealed that efforts to halt High Court proceedings to wind up the club have proved unsuccessful.

After meeting with manager Denis Smith, Mr Bennett and Mr Griffiths said in a joint statement: "A decision was made not to appoint any new directors under the present circumstances, but both of us will help The Racecourse staff to keep the club running on a daily basis.

"We would like to thank the fans for backing us at Saturday's match against Hull City.

"We need fans and the business community across North Wales to help us so that we can keep this great stadium for the use of future generations."

Mr Bennett told the Leader today: "We have to go down to London to represent the club on November 17 at this winding up petition. We tried to have a meeting to see if it could be avoided and agreement could be reached but they say it has gone beyond that now, which is unfortunate."

He added: "We have done an analysis on the financial situation for November and to be honest it looks grim. We only have one home league game — November 20 against Bristol City - so we will have to rely on that game as our only source of income which will make things difficult.

"I would urge everyone to come to that game because if we can get a big gate we may be able to make it through to December when we have four or possibly five home games.

* Fans are urged to attend tonight's LDV Vans Trophy clash at The Racecourse against Stockport at 7.45pm.