PRESTATYN Town’s big changes in recent weeks have not gone down well with the club’s supporters.

From being refused a Tier 1 Domestic Licence by the Football Association of Wales that prevented them from the securing promotion to the JD Cymru Premier to the departure of manager Neil Gibson, it is a tough time for the team’s fanbase as chairman Jamie Welsh has undergone wholesale changes across the board since buying the club from Neal Colakoglu.

Not only this, but Town’s title-winning squad have vanished to pursue other opportunities in the game, with many agreeing to stay on earlier this summer thanks in no small part to their loyalty towards Gibson.

This is something we have seen plenty of across the region in recent months. One only has to look at the situation which unfolded at Bangor City to see how a club can be disenchanted from its supporters almost overnight.

The similarities are there for all to see, but will this see the Seasiders’ support begin making their own plans for a phoenix club in the coming months?

It’s been done before, both with Bangor 1876 and CPD Y Rhyl 1879, albeit for different reasons. Welsh had pleaded for patience regarding the vast changes, but that is something that football fans don’t tend to have a great deal of.

Being a Blackburn Rovers supporter, I know first-hand how this sort of situation unfolds. When Venky’s took over the club, replacing Sam Allardyce with Steve Kean, the club went into freefall that eventually culminated not only in relegation from the Premier League, but also into League One for the first time in an age.

Blackburn are turning things around slowly, and a lot of their Indian ownership’s failing were down to bad advice. But it doesn’t make the last few years any less painful.

While the situation at Prestatyn is on a lesser scale, it is no less concerning for people who care for the club. Key volunteers and Academy coaches have left the set-up, which leaves some questioning the club’s future despite Welsh’s statement to the contrary.

In truth, they’ve been punching above their weight for years. Before Gibson took over Prestatyn was a third-tier club going relatively nowhere. But as the great James song states “if I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor”.

It is a little premature to be talking of a fan-owned club, although it is not out of the realms of possibility. It has been done before and given the current state of the domestic game, it will be done again. But such significant personnel changes almost instantaneously are going to take some time for supporters to get over, if they ever do.

There was a Prestatyn Town FC before Neil Gibson, and there will be one after. However, in what capacity remains to be seen.