Five members of new Carlisle United fan group Unita Fortior voted onto supporters trust CUOSC board

The elections will dramatically change the make-up of the trust board.

And it comes in the wake of a recent war of words which saw UF accuse CUOSC of "stagnating" – with senior trust figures branding the new group a ‘Trojan horse’.

The CUOSC elections also saw long-serving Norman Steel voted off the board.

Meanwhile, Billy Atkinson – the trust’s representative on Carlisle United’s Holdings board – was re-elected, but with significantly fewer votes than the Unita Fortior candidates.

Unita Fortior's Dan MacLennan received the most votes in the CUOSC board elections

UF launched in January with a stated aim of campaigning to increase trust membership numbers to make the "stale" organisation more representative of the wider United fanbase.

Thanks to everyone who supported me and the other 4 @UnitaFortiorCU candidates in the @CUOSC elections. Looking forward to getting on and starting to make a positive difference for @officialcufc

— Dave Noble (@DRNoble25) July 31, 2022

Tensions came to the surface in recent months as UF expressed frustration at a series of events involving CUOSC – and saying they had concluded that the only way to bring about real change was to stand for election themselves.

In response, the trust’s Nigel Davidson and Frank Beattie used a BBC Radio Cumbria interview to hit back at some of UF’s claims and accuse them of being a “Trojan horse” designed to “oust” existing trust board figures.

Billy Atkinson was re-elected with the sixth highest amount of votes from eight candidates

The election, as part of CUOSC’s annual general meeting held at Brunton Park this morning, saw the five candidates from UF claim the most votes out of the eight people standing.

With six board positions up for grabs, Dan MacLennan received 149 votes with UF colleagues Matt Spooner (146), Chris Armstrong (141), Dave Noble (140) and Kieron Bulman (134) also elected.

Atkinson received the sixth highest number of votes – 93 – and was re-elected to the board.

Norman Steel: voted off the board

But the others up for election – Gerard Gornall and Norman Steel – failed to gain enough votes.

Gornall received 88 with Steel the lowest total of 56 votes.

Thanks to everybody who voted for me in the @CUOSC election. I’m very excited to work with the rest of the board and membership to make positive steps forward for @officialcufc fans.

Thanks also to those who voted at all - whether for me or otherwise.#cufc

— Matt Spooner (@mspoonz) July 31, 2022

Those elected will serve on the board until 2025.

It now remains to be seen if harmony can now be reached between UF and the CUOSC figures after a period of open criticism between the respective parties.