supporting the decision of the club's executive to withdraw the team from the Second Division, and has gone as far as to send a letter to the Bermuda Football Association confirming its wish to remain competitive.

That was the latest development yesterday after a two-hour meeting on Thursday night which, according to founding member Alfred Ingham, was attended by an estimated 30-35 persons connected with the club.

It was Ingham, manager of the team last year, who delivered the letter to the BFA office yesterday spelling out their intention to remain in the league, supposedly on behalf of the club, though club president Collins Smith was not at the meeting. He also did not endorse the letter.

"It's just unfortunate that on behalf of the president he didn't get the type of support needed to continue with the programme,'' said Ingham yesterday of Smith. "There was a lack of communication, which resulted in that withdrawal.'' But Smith last night hit out at the group, calling them "undesirables'' in the community.

"That group hasn't been involved in the club for four to five years,'' said Smith. "We put together a programme and set goals, one of which was that if we didn't make the First Division this season we would get somewhere near.'' Paget's problems came about because of a lack of interest shown to training by players, which eventually forced a disgusted David Furbert to withdraw his coaching services.

"Furbert could have stuck in a little longer, at least to the beginning of the season,'' said Ingham, who added that some players were unable to show a commitment at the time because of other responsibilities.

But Smith said: "We started in July and had 10 people out training regularly and they were those who transferred to the club. There were not enough Paget guys. We had a good squad but not enough to come up to standard.'' The president said that Paget had attracted young players from PHC and Southampton and the weeks in training with Furbert were beneficial. But, according to Smith, when it became clear that interest shown was only theirs, Furbert pulled out and then the players themselves made the decision to withdraw the team.

"The people who went to the BFA are the `kick' boys. They have no respect at all. They wouldn't last 10 minutes because they argue too much amongst each other. We did not want to go through the same thing over and over.

"We are still an affiliate of the BFA and can return once we show that we have a programme together. We have Mini-Minors and Bantams right now who are competing against and beating the top clubs.'' Ingram added: "Hopefully he (Furbert) will rejoin us if he sees more interest from players and supporters. I want to thank everybody for their support generally.'' Ingham said that there will be a training session for Paget players at Paget Primary School field at 9 a.m. tomorrow. But all efforts now are likely to be in vain.

BFA administrative assistant David Sabir confirmed he had received a letter from the group but is waiting official correspondence from the club that can only come from the executive.

"We deal only with officials of clubs,'' said Sabir. "We're waiting for an official statement from the executives of Paget.

"Barring this the BFA has no choice but to accept the official withdrawal notice from the president (Collins Smith).'' Sabir said a number of Paget players have already expressed interest in joining other teams.

"We officially haven't received any transfers but we've been put on notice that a number of players are leaving,'' said Sabir.