Fan group lead Hawthorns march to keep West Brom spotlight on Lai and Xu Ke

The supporters’ group was formed towards the end of last year as opposition to absent Baggies controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai.

The group, founded by Alistair Jones and featuring a team of committee members, have banged the drum to help raise awareness against Lai’s alleged failings, including the failure to repay a £4.9million loan taken from the club two years ago.

There has been impressive progress. As well as building an online following of thousands, the group have held meetings with chief executive Ron Gourlay and director of communications Ian Skidmore and their mission to highlight Albion’s off-field issues and improve football governance has been lobbied in Parliament by West Bromwich East MP Nicola Richards.

Saturday, prior to the home Championship fixture against Huddersfield, Action For Albion have organised a protest march on the Birmingham Road to Halfords Lane and The Hawthorns.

It is expected to be busy as the group look to make their mark.

“We’re very pleased with what we’ve done, we wanted to challenge the scepticism for normal football fan culture and the way fans can campaign against things they don’t like,” said Jones, 45, a lifelong Albion fan – named after Ally Robertson. “We thought there was avenue to campaign against what fans do when they protest, we wanted to try something different.

“We as a committee made a very simple agenda we always wanted to be peaceful, legal, above board, planned and strategic, the most important is to support the team, it’s not their fault.

“There will always be an element of ‘when the team’s winning, everything’s OK’, but we think we’ve done alright.

“We’re proud to see we’ve risen up the table under Carlos while we’ve been protesting, well the home form – the only place we protest – if that’s putting players off I think we should continue all the time!

“I think the fan protests have genuinely helped towards a feeling of unity.

“The main aim was to continue to keep pressure on. People might say ‘what’s shining a light going to do?’ well on its own obviously nothing, but it’s to build protests and pressure from a solid foundation. “

Action for Albion have been frustrated by limited opportunities to protest. Night games, moved for television, have meant just one Saturday fixture since the start of January. That was recently against Middlesbrough, where the usual ‘Shine a Light’ campaign – fans holding their phone torches – and a planned Halfords Lane meet post-match struggled for traction.

Saturday’s march has been professionally and meticulously planned and organised between authorities and the club.

Supporters are asked to meet outside Storage King on Birmingham Road, opposite West Bromwich Dartmouth Cricket Club by 2.15pm. The march will begin between then and 2.30pm to arrive at the stadium in time for the 3pm kick-off.

The group distributed up to 5,000 leaflets at The Hawthorns during Tuesday night's 1-0 win over Wigan. They are keen to spell out their cause to a demographic who may not access information so readily online.

It will take place on the pavement and on one closed lane on The Hawthorns side of the Birmingham Road. The group have megaphones, banners and voluntary stewards to help prioritise safety and narrate songs and chants.

They are keen for an outpouring of emotion to be broadcastable, and expletive-free, so not to detract from publication.

Saturday is also Albion Foundation day. The group have been in contact with the foundation and praised their work publicly and privately, they do not want footfall there to take a hit.

“The majority of the fanbase aren’t happy with what’s going on (at ownership level),” Perton-based Jones said. “There’s been a good few thousand that have shone their lights at the stadium in some protests, that made the club realise this wasn’t some noisy minority, but a widespread unhappiness.

“Before Christmas we wrote an open letter to the club as an olive branch and we’re really pleased and proud of the club that West Brom are, it was taken. That’s a positive, the club recognising an issue and wanting to talk with people that care passionately like we do.

“We’ve had really clear and constructive dialogue with Ian Skidmore and Ron Gourlay and they continue to meet us monthly.

“Obviously the next step with the loans issue, they are part of the football club board and not directors of (WBA) Group, so there’s very little they can say on the loan.

“The pressure now we want is a sit down with the group’s only director Xu Ke for a discussion. Because we’re reasonable people that is going to be put forward to him so fans can be involved and we can get the facts, because there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in the loans and ownership.

“We want to get in front of Xu Ke and hopefully the ultimate aim of meeting Mr Lai and discuss what the future plans are and the most pertinent question everybody wants to know– when are we getting our money back?”

He added: "We want to continue to generate pressure on the absent ownership structure.

"We've been told by the club it's impossible to be self-sustaining in the Championship, Bristol City owe £200million-plus to their owner, QPR spend £140 on wages for every £100 earned, these clubs have benefactors, we need to compete with no money coming in.

"We felt in January the MSD loan was the least worst possible option, we had to get some revenue in to continue to trade. That cannot continue for the day-to-day running of the club.

"We will continue letting fans know what we're doing, Action for Albion are in for the long haul and not the short haul.

"West Bromwich Albion have always been trailblazers and pioneers and I'm really proud of being in a group at the forefront of trying to make more football change."