Fans of former Welsh Premier League giants Barry Town have walked after a long and bitter dispute with owner Stuart Lovering - the man they once hailed as their "knight in shining armour."
Their move comes as the former champions face another crisis which could put their whole future in doubt.
The Welsh League have told the club they will not be allowed to continue a groundshare with South Wales Amateur side Treforest next season - and have until July 2 to find a new home.
Failure to do so could lead to expulsion from the league - and the end of 91 years of senior football in the town.
The rebel fans say they will now form their own club. It is likely to be called by Barry's original nickname of The Linnets and will start from scratch in either the Barri and District League or the Vale of Glamorgan League.
Lovering rescued the seven-times champions when he agreed a £130,000 deal with creditors over almost £1 million of debts run up by previous administrations.
But the shine quickly went off his armour as he first argued with the club's powerful supporters' club, banned them, cut the playing budget and took Barry away from
The disillusioned fans say they have lost all confidence in him - and want nothing to do with a club which does not play in the town.
They claim Lovering prevented them from fund-raising and banned officials from home matces.
A meeting on Monday night said they had lost all confidence in Lovering. The final straw was the discovery that Lovering - who has always described himself as a "barrister and property developer" had, in fact, been disbarred.
Lovering was expelled from
Fans released a statement after the meeting saying: "It was clear to all that any lingering trust or confidence that the supporters might have had in him had been destroyed."
The planned new club - which has a steering committee of former supporters' club chairman Tim Johnson, Dr Liz Davies (former Barry director), Neil White, Alan Whelan and John Hedley-Thomas - are happy to drop six rungs down the ladder with a long term aim of securing the return of a Barry-based team to the top flight.
The statement added: "Since taking over in December 2002, many supporters believe Lovering has given them the mushroom treatment - keeping them in the dark and throwing manure at them from time to time.
"He has unjustifiably vilified the official supporters' club and banned them from undertaking any fund-raising activitied at
"Numbers attending games have increasingly diminished, particularly since the club was "locked out" of
"A previous meeting appointed a steering committee to examine ways forward and try to open a dialogue. Lovering dismissed these approaches out-of-hand. In his letter of response he laid out his "plans and strategy" - which most supporters considered to be unworkable and pure fantasy.
"Seeing no prospect of a return to
Steering committee member Johnson said later: "We simply can't believe a word Stuart Lovering says anymore. If we'd known what we know now when he took over, then perhaps matters would have been different.
"All we want to do is to watch a Barry team playing at
Committee member Neil White added: "We do not think the present Barry Town will be going back to
In February the council announced their intention to go to court over an alleged £30,000 in back rent. Lovering demanded renegotiation of an assessment which he said meant the council wanted £42,000 a year - around the same price as an English Championship club.
Lovering was unavailable for comment but club secretary David Cole said: "Since the supporters had their meeting, I've spoken to a number of other fans who tell me they want nothing to do with any new club.
"I told Stuart of the proposal and like me he is sad it's all come to this. Over the period of time, the fans have become dissatisfied with the way Stuart has run the club. I've tried my best to smooth things over, obviously I've failed."
Barry Town won seven titles from 1993, six Welsh Cups, a FAW trophy, a FAW Cup as well as regular appearances in