Although it is outside the soccer season, action at Billericay Town's New Lodge ground tonight may have as significant a say in the club's fortunes as any match on the pitch.

An emergency general meeting is being held at 8pm at which a group of dissident members will try to unseat Rod Moore as club chairman.

The group, unhappy at Moore's style of leadership, hope to replace him with Tony Thake, a club vice-president whose transport company, Thake International, were sponsors last term.

Both sides express high hopes of success tonight. While Moore and the current committee believe the challenge to his leadership is an irrelevance which needs to be cleared up so that the important matter of preparing for next term can be concentrated on, the dissenters believe they may have the support to get rid of the current chairman.

It is possible, of course, that if Moore is defeated tonight under a motion of no confidence, another candidate apart from Thake could be put up for election.

The power struggle is being played to the background of new manager Gary Calder trying to build a side to start the 1999/2000 campaign, which opens in mid-August.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.