Joyce Saving Club For the Fans

Joyce, who is head of the Blenheim consortium, says his group had no choice other to make a bid to save the club.

He is sure that if he and fellow former directors John Mounteney, Bill Barrowcliffe and Roy Parker not acted then the club would not be in existence anymore.

He also says that the backing of the Notts supporters has been a huge factor in trying to secure the clubs future.

"We got involved out of necessity," Joyce told the Nottingham Evening Post. "We did it because every other group had failed to come up with the goods - and if we hadn't done something, that would have been it.

"We had a consortium in place in the background, anyway. So it wasn't too hard to get things going. But we didn't have much choice.

"At the end of the day, somebody had to do something. We couldn't let the club go under, because it means so much to so many people."

Joyce also revealed that the pure emotion of the Notts fans after Saturday's game against Luton had convinced him of just how much the club meant to people.

The fans have proved how much the club means to them

"I didn't realise just how much people cared until Saturday," he said.

"We went over to the Jimmy Sirrel stand after the match, to speak to the fans - myself, Paul Finnity and Roy Parker - and it was remarkable.

"For the past few weeks I have sat in meetings and listened to accountants, lawyers and money men go 'blah, blah, blah'.

"But it is the fans that matter.

"When you have seen grown men crying out of fear that the club could go under, women looking at you like you are some sort of saviour, that is when you know you are doing the right thing.

"I don't see us as being saviours, not for one minute but that puts things in perfect perspective."

Joyce also says one of his priorities is to make sure the fans have a significant part to play in the future running of the club.

"The way the fans have reacted over the last few weeks has been fantastic," he added.

"And it will be a priority of ours to make sure they are fully involved in the future.

"The ultimate aim is to get them a place on the board.

"They can't do that until they have fulfilled their requirements with Nottingham City Council but we want to get them involved before that.

"They have been fantastic in the amount of help they have given us so far and we want to keep tapping into that. We want to open the lines of communication with the Supporters Trust and the Supporters Club.

"There are people out there desperate to help the club and they have a lot of expertise that they can use to do that. It would be foolish not to find ways that they can."

Joyce also said that sitting down with Billy Dearden to talk about team selection is a priority, but there a more important matters, like actually buying the club, to attend to first.

"The fact is we haven't brought the club yet.

"And we do not want to get carried away, like other people have done in the past.

"I am afraid that most of my time is going to be taken up with trying to get the takeover resolved, over the next few weeks.

"I know we need to find the time to sit down with Billy Dearden and discuss what he wants and I will be doing that as soon as physically possible."