Poppies fans? The Titanic is now boarding.

Darlington responded to the prospect of going bust by quadrupling their home attendances.

Even the Direones have managed to form a new club from the scummy ashes and have a real chance of carving a future.

How are we Poppies fans responding to our own imminent demise?  Is there a concerted effort to pull together to raise funds to help our immediate survival?  Are we dragging more people along to the games?  Are we all joining the Trust in order to provide a united front to face up to the problems the club faces, or any possible future owners.

We are perilously close to seeing our club go out of business, but you'd be forgiven for thinking so by looking over our supporter forum.

Weed out threads where posters are moaning that any monies supporters raise will simply prop Imraan up for a bit longer.   Ignore threads which shockingly blast the Trust committee for even considering working alongside Imraan to save our club.  Skip threads where former supporters talk vaguely about "Kettering 1872", as though a new club will magically happen simply because they mention it.  Boggle about threads where supporters don't want George Rolls, or Imraan, or the Trust running the club, but seemingly imagine that dozens of multi-millionaires are knocking on the door, desperate to spend their entire fortunes on buying success for the Poppies.  Root out threads about a bloody silly name game.  What do you have left?

Unfortunately very little.

The problem with most Poppies fans is that we have an unshakable belief that everything will turn our for the best, because things always have in the past.  Unfortunately this is shockingly dangerous complacency these days.

The situation is simple.

• Imraan can't or won't pay wages or taxes, and possibly other costs.
• A takeover may or may not happen.  Even if it does, does anyone believe that a prospective owner will happily stick his hand in his pocket when the supporters won't, even for a club they profess to love?
• A potential management structure including owners and supporters is a fall back position.
• The club generates insufficient income to pay it's bills.

What should we do?

Firstly, stop worrying that giving money to the Trust is propping up Imraan.  None of us like what he has done, but whether we like it or not, he is here.  Nothing beyond a buy-out is going to change that.  So, we either accept this and try to save Kettering Town FC, or we let the club flounder and comfort ourselves that even though the Poppies cease to exist, we didn't give Imraan any more of our money.  Will the smug superiority of sticking to this principle be any comfort when the fixtures come our for next season, and our team is no longer there?

With Tuesday's game called off, and Saturday almost certain to go the same way, it is vital that the fans act NOW.  If at all possible, contribute £10, or £20 to the Trust's Save the Poppies Campaign.  Set yourself the plan to say, chuck a tenner into the Paypal Account every home game and perhaps a fiver every away game. 

It's money at a time when everyone's feeling the pinch.  But do we want to save a few bob now and spend the rest of our lives regretting it, or have to explain to the next generation of kids from Kettering why they haven't got a football club.  It really could be the difference between life and death for the Poppies.

140 years of history is a great achievement of generations of our forebears who struggled and sacrificed so that we have a club today.  Let's not allow pride, bitterness and division to turn a club with a proud history into a club that IS history.