WANDERERS officals have hit back at critics who say they kept fans in the dark over the club's groundshare deal with Wasps.

Fans were frustrated at the lack of information coming out of the club in comparison with the news from Wasps during the negotiations.

But Blues director Ian Mather says Wanderers were duty bound to keep mum because of a confidentiality agreement.

He said: "The WWFC plc board members are working hard to ensure that information is effectively communicated to supporters on all aspects of the football club but, there are occasions, such as the Wasps negotiations, where restrictions on what can be said publicly are placed on the club and its directors by a third party.

"In the case of Wasps, the restriction was that neither side could make any public comment or issue any information to the press or other media without the full consent of the other party.

"Needless to say, nothing that Wasps divulged prior to the formal announcement was ever done with the approval of the WWFC board. Whilst Wasps chose to largely ignore the confidentiality agreement that they had insisted on in the first place, the WWFC board felt and agreed that two wrongs don't make a right and, so as not to jeopardise the negotiations in any way, the football club board agreed to honour and abide by the terms of the confidentiality agreement. Admittedly, this may have made us look, at times as though we were deliberately and unnecessarily holding back information from our supporters, this was not the case and the whole plc board was anxious to release information to supporters at the earliest opportunity."