LOCALS RALLY TO REBUILD BRIDGE

WHEN committee members at Bamber Bridge set out to raise £30,000 to protect the club's future, they were apprehensive about the response they'd get.

- Andrew Simpson

But after raising a third of that sum in less than a week, that anxiety is gradually giving way to optimism.

"Our audience is bigger than we imagined," chairman Brian Ginty told The NLP.

"It's heartening, and by working together with everybody that's contacted us with offers to help makes me confident we can come out the other side of this." This is just the start.

The Preston outfit, members of the Northern Premier League's top-flight, launched an online fundraiser last Friday and need an urgent cash injection to cover player wages and to pay staff who work in the social club.

If the target is reached, a shortterm threat to Brig's future will recede.

Ginty added: "It's getting harder and harder to run a team at this level; we've tried lots of things, but they don't always come off.

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