WAYNE Wild is optimistic that hundreds of fans will pledge money towards a potential takeover of Blackburn Rovers following an open meeting on Saturday – and he has invited Seneca or any other potential bidder to join forces.

Wild is the co-founder of the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Investment Trust, who held a fans meeting at King George’s Hall at the weekend to discuss their ongoing plans to raise funds to buy Rovers from Venky’s and put the club into community control.

The meeting attracted an audience of around 500 and the trust are confident they are on target to raise £10m as they aim to tempt Venky’s into a sale, even though the Indian poultry giants continue to insist they have no plans to sell Rovers.

The BRSIT had received pledges totalling almost £2m before Saturday’s meeting, having launched a scheme two months ago offering shares for £1,000 each if a takeover was to prove successful.

A further 90 pledges were received following the meeting, raising near to £250,000 - including £100,000 from George Lamb, the chairman of Blackburn Chemicals Ltd – and Wild believes that figure will rise in the coming days.

"We are exceptionally happy with how the meeting went,” said Wild, who has still had no reply from Venky’s to a letter he wrote to them outlining his concerns about the club in October - in a capacity as a fan and group director of Rovers’ main sponsor WEC.

“The room was full, it was standing room only. Ninety per cent of the room put their hands up to say they hadn’t pledged so far so if they all pledged that would boost the fund dramatically.

“We had 40 pledges at the event and we’ve had 50 online since. Hopefully there will be more when people go back to work this week.

"There were 1,200 people who had pledged money before that.

"We have 16,000 season ticket holders plus people who buy match tickets, plus people who live afar.

"So there are a lot of people still to convince and if we can convince only half of them then we can achieve our target."