It’s been a while since our last Swindon Advertiser ‘Trust Matters’ column - but things are still progressing well behind the scenes at TrustSTFC.

We continue to discuss the County Ground freehold purchase with council representatives. Although it’s frustrating for all concerned - we’ve come to accept that the sale of this much-loved local asset will not happen quickly.

The conversation with Swindon Borough Council started three years ago and things were progressing well whilst we were the sole bidders.

The recent interest from the football club has slowed proceedings, and with local elections looming, it’s looking likely that this will now run until the middle of the year at least, so patience is the key for us all.

That said, we are in a great position and have conducted our business in a very professional manner.

We’re confident that a solution will be found.

There are many bad stories around the world of football regarding stadiums - Coventry, Northampton, Oxford, Darlington to name a few - and just this week non-league Dulwich Hamlet have been banned from playing at their own ground by the property company that owns the land.

We want the County Ground to become fan-owned and secured for future generations, regardless of who owns the club at any point in time, and as a Trust, we would always be willing to work with any club owner.

We would never stand in the way of any major investment and in many ways we see ourselves as an independent extension of the club.

All the proceeds from our work have always been either directly or indirectly invested back into Swindon Town - and that will always be the case.

Trust board members have donated a considerable amount of personal time and money to this challenge and we will continue to seek the best possible result for everyone involved and find ways to work together with the current football club ownership for the right outcome.

In other news, the TrustSTFC annual general meeting will be held at the same venue as last year - The Goddard Arms in Old Town, Swindon on Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm.

Please come along and see us.

We will be handing out a question and answer sheet and also taking questions on the night, so grab a beer, talk football, and get involved. It’s a chance to get whatever you want off your chest.

It’s really important that we don’t let off-the-field matters affect the promotion push. We are not a League Two club and we need to get out of there as soon as possible.

With Matt Taylor taking up the management role, let’s give him our full support and we will hopefully see a big push for promotion back into League One at the first attempt.