The fight for a new stadium was spearheaded by a nucleus of diehard Albion fans who have battled to save the club for the past ten years.

Paul Samrah is a chartered accountant by profession but chairing the Falmer For All campaign to secure a new stadium became virtually a fulltime job.

Mr Samrah, who lives in Henfield with his wife Belinda, made his name alongside Paul Bracchi, former chief reporter for The Argus.

The pair discovered in 1995 how Albion director Bill Archer had paid just £56.25 for his majority shareholding in the club.

They later exposed the removal of a non-profit clause from the Albion's constitution, which stated if the club went out of business any surplus money would go to local sports clubs and charities.

Mr Samrah, an Albion fan for 30 years, said: "I had to put up with a lot of verbal abuse from the previous board and was banned from the ground. I got the letter on Christmas Eve 1996 banning me for the next 20 months.

"I knew then that I was never going to give up. There was nothing they were going to do to stop me."

What started as an anarchic gaggle of like-minded fans mobilised into an efficient and organised support network.

Mr Samrah said: "This campaign was run by a number of people, not just one person. If you have a structure and are all singing from the same hymn sheet, it's amazing what can be done."

Tim Carder, 48, of the Albion Supporters Club, was incensed when The Argus exposed the plot to sell the Goldstone back in 1995.

He said: "I spent 30 years of my life supporting the Albion and I was not about to let my football club be taken from me.

"The first priority was to get rid of the regime at the club and get a new board in place and fortunately there were people like Dick Knight waiting in the wings.

"The second phase was to bring home the Albion from Gillingham.

"The third was Falmer. We first started handing out pro-Falmer leaflets at Gillingham in October 1998. We thought it might take a while but not this long."