Brothers will raise £1m to help QPR

"Tonight, I'm supposed to be going to a box hosted by Maurice Fitzgerald, who is putting together a consortium to try to buy out Chris Wright, but it will be a fleeting appearance before I go back to my usual seat. I'm probably one of the most vocal fans in the stand, so the last thing I'd want to do is watch from an executive box."

At last week's game against Bury, the Wintons took part in the club's halftime entertainment, spinning around a traffic cone 10 times and then staggering to the penalty area before taking a spot-kick past the club mascot Jude the Cat.

After getting a standing ovation from fans, a dizzy Alex beat his brother and two other supporters to the first prize, a digital TV set-top box.

But this solidarity with the supporters is also the main reason why the Wintons came up with their innovative scheme. Rather than get involved in the politics and financial consequences of trying to take over the club, which has been in administration for nine months, the Wintons would rather have a direct influence on the pitch by helping to fund player acquisitions - and so would many other supporters, to judge by the response they have had.

In return, investors stand to receive a percentage of any future transfer fee for those players.

"I'm confident we can reach £1m by the end of the season," Alex said. "The interest has been vast and we haven't been able to keep up with it all so far. There are wealthy fans offering to invest up to £100,000, which is the maximum we would allow, and others who want to put in anything from £100 to £10,000. We are not loaded, and we are not in it to make a quick buck. We simply want to do our bit to ensure that Ian Holloway can either keep his best players or add to the squad he has. Ian is a major factor in all of this - he is the most honest manager you could wish to meet and has really turned the club around. With the Shittu deal we went to him to see if we could help fund it, because we knew he had no money to spend.

"Now he is coming to us, suggesting players we could invest in, and we are in talks with a French striker, as well as looking to take over the wages of a couple of first-teamers and reserve players.

Holloway is likely to field the same side that beat promotion rivals Stoke on Saturday, although Alex Bonnot and Aziz Ben Askar are available again.

QPR v Bournemouth
7.45pm, tonight, Loftus Road