A RESCUE bid is being launched to save one of Gwent's oldest football clubs from extinction.

A bid to save Abergavenny Thursdays Football Club and make it a community facility has been drawn up by a steering group of ex-players and local businessmen.

Steering group member, ex-player/manager Kyle Holmes, said: "I'm very excited with the business plan we've put forward."

Monmouthshire county council, which owns the ground at Penypound, is already considering a bid from Abergavenny Community House to take over the lease.

The council's recreation officer, Tim Bradfield, said the bid is being considered, and a decision by the council's cabinet could be made as early as January 7.

The steering group includes local solicitor Chris Davies, accountant Ernie Moore, bank manager Martin Palmer, ex-players Brian Jones and Phil Hemmings, Paul Baillie, marketing director of Internet agency Motion Pixels, and current manager Bill Mainwaring.

Mr Baillie said: "In 2008 Abergavenny Thursdays will be 100 years old, so we have 96 years' history of this famous and proud club hanging in the balance.

"In recent years any management strategy has been all but non-existent, and so the club has become disenfranchised from the town it was meant to serve.

"The clubhouse has become dishevelled, the stadium, which once hosted Wales v England under-21 internationals, run down, and the team, who barely a decade ago were the champions of Wales, have been demoted season after season.

"Abergavenny Thursdays commands a great deal of affection, not only within its own community, but also in the football history of Wales."

The group intends to set up a supporters' trust, The Thursday Trust, to strengthen links between the club and the community.

The trust will be a limited company, with representatives of the football club, the council, the professions and the local community.

Membership of the trust is £10 per year for an individual, and £50 for a business, and the target is 50 businesses and 750 individuals, which would raise £10,000.

Already the group has pledges from 30 businesses and 200 individuals.

Brian Jones added: "We hope the town will be behind this bid because we want to see Abergavenny Thursdays rise from the ashes and become a force to be reckoned with once again."