TOWN chief executive Mark Devlin fears the club will be condemned to bumbling along as a homely Division Two outfit unless it is allowed to 'achieve its aspirations in a timely fashion'.

In his view that means a new stadium and he passionately expressed the point as members of the Swindon Town Supporters Trust gave the Shaw scheme their backing by the narrowest of margins at a County Ground meeting last night.

Devlin envisages that a new stadium could add between £1.5 to £2million to the club's turnover. He is adamant that this step has to be taken if Town are to prosper.

He said: "This club can bumble along and at best we can hope to have a fairly well run Division Two club.

"That isn't my vision and I said when I arrived that I wanted to see Swindon Town as a top-30 club.

"This club needs a new stadium to achieve its aspirations in a timely fashion.

"The current stadium does not allow us to move forward and meet those aspirations.

"I believe a new stadium and the facilities that will go with it will see us being capable of having a well run, established First Division club in this town."

Devlin accepts there is some vociferous opposition, with the Swindon Forest Protection Group, particularly unhappy with the proposed site.

They were present at last night's meeting.

Spokesman Alan Hayward said the site was part of a community forest and that was how it should continue to develop.

He said: "We are committed to this project. We want it to happen and we want it to reach its conclusion."

"We have absolutely no gripe with Swindon Town.

Conspiracy theories generally accompany any controversial scheme and Devlin accepts that this one is no different.

He said: "People harp on about how can we do this when we still owe the council money? We don't.

"Others say it's a done deal. It isn't.

"We have had the consultation exercise and before the end of the month we will sit down with the people from St Modwens and see what is workable."

Devlin also confirmed that there was no 'plan B' as such and that it would be literally a case of back to the drawing board if the Shaw scheme was ultimately rejected.

He confirmed that the stadium would be owned by a company with shares split evenly between St Modwen and the Wills family.

Also present at the meeting was Coun Justin Tomlinson (Con, Abbey Meads) who confirmed that no planning application for the stadium and sports village scheme had yet been received by Swindon Borough Council.

Coun Tomlinson believes the majority of his colleagues in the chamber are against the scheme at present but feels the chances are that the final decision might not be left to them anyway.

He said: "In my opinion it will come down on John Prescott's desk."

Town have received more than 450 new applications for season ticket holders for the forthcoming campaign.

Mark Devlin said: "We have now gone through the 2,000 barrier, something we didn't do until July 15 last year. It's very encouraging."

Meanwhile, Tommy Mooney is still waiting for his future to be resolved.

Mooney said: "There's really nothing I can add to what I said yesterday.

"I haven't spoken to the gaffer as yet and there aren't any developments."