Carlisle United's supporters trust CUOSC say they would welcome a bid by a new fan group to drive up its membership.

Unita Fortior today set out its aim to encourage many more supporters to join CUOSC in order to make the trust more representative of the fanbase.

The new organisation say CUOSC is at times "ineffective" and could do more to both help and challenge club bosses.

They want to see a thousand more fans sign up and give United a trust that carries more clout and speaks for more supporters.

CUOSC, who have 25.4 per cent voting rights through its shareholding in United's Holdings company, gave their response to the Unita Fortior mission statement in a comment to the News & Star.

They said: "CUOSC will support any movement that is working in the best interests of the club and fans.

"We are a democratic organisation with a board that is elected by the membership. We also have a constitution approved by the national Football Supporters Association.

"The board works tirelessly on behalf of the fans. However, for a number of years we have tried to encourage new people to join.

"If Unita Fortior can help us expand our membership into the thousands we will be delighted.

"No one on the CUOSC board is in this for themselves – we are just big supporters of the club."