Please see below. Taken from Unibond League Website!
Lairds Face Relegation After FA Ground Grading Decision 18/04/2009
At a meeting on Tuesday evening the UniBond League Board took the decision that Cammell Laird would lose their Premier Division status at the end of the season whether or not they finished in a relegation position.
The League had been informed in writing by the FA’s Technical Panel which is responsible for ground grading that it had not been able to award the club the “C” grade which it needed in order to continue to play in the top flight.
When promoted last season Lairds had been given until 31st March 2009 to obtain the required grading. The decision is subject to appeal and it is understood that the club do intend to appeal against the decision.
Only Witton can overtake Cammell Laird in bottom four and if we do not catch them we probably safe if outside bottom three.
If we beat Whitby Town then they cannot catch us and we are guranteed to finish fourth from bottom and escape as Cammell Laird take our place in Uni North/South.
If we draw against Whitby we have to win last game if they win their last game as they ahead on GD
If we lose against Whitby we have to win last game and they not win lasat game
So really we need to beat them Wednesday and probabl safe [if m assumptions are correct?].
Of course if the pikies or anyone else get booted into the Unibond North only two may go down
For what its worth I have no confidence in the Unibond League actually carrying out their threat of relegating a team.
They have been spineless in previous seasons with the likes of Great Harwood, Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor getting away with murder on the basis of false promises. Even this season the situation at Leigh has been nothing short of a joke.
If Lairds intend to appeal then does anyone know the timescale involved??
By my count there are 22 teams in the Premier League but only 21 in the Northern Division and only 20 in the Southern Division. What effect will this have on relegations etc?
WHS.
As we do not know what the outcome of this will be, we need to assume that the league will do nothing!
This then means that we MUST win the last two games to give us even a chance of staying up on points. If Matlock win their last game, and Boston win either of their remaining games, then we cannot stay up on points.
We need to focus on winning these matches, and not think about the Cammell situation.
We need to go all out for two wins, which would probably be enough to get us out of the bottom four. Staying up because of playing performance would be much more satisfactory than staying up because of a ruling against another club.
Initially I felt sorry for Lairds, even though it was very difficult not to feel a degree of elation, purely as it improved our chances of staying up, but after some reflection I have changed my position a little. I still empathise with how their supporters must feel, but the club have chosen a path and must face the consequences. Earlier in the season it was reported that they were in great financial difficulty, and were in danger of losing the majority of their squad. They then received a cash injection, and it appears that the club chose to prioritise on the field rather than off. Instead of cutting back on wages and spending money on the infrastructure, they chose to live above their means, knowing full well that they would be facing relegation due to ground issues. This is very much a case of ‘you’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it’. If I decide to stop paying my mortgage repayments and instead use the money to pay for several exotic holidays, I will have a good time in the short term but lose my house. Any appeal would, quite rightly, be a complete waste of time. I would have made the wrong choice.
As I say, I do feel sorry for the supporters of Lairds, but the club has to live with the consequences of the choice it made earlier in the season. I’m sure there are quite a lot of other clubs who are paying wages far above what they can afford, and securing a higher place in the table because of this, instead of living within their means. What is certain is that these clubs will pay for this in the future, as we at Witton know only too well.
Indeed, they agreed to improve their ground and then they chose not to, any appeal should be thrown out the window. If we do sit 4th from bottom and it is between us and Lairds to go down I hope the league realise what a good setup it is here at Witton for a Unibond Premier team and that we deserve to be in this division (or hopefully one or two higher in a few years) as opposed to Lairds which is a Unibond division 1 setup at best. I did here a few Worksop fans saying on Saturday they hope we do stay up as they find it a great place to visit.
Note: IF Nantwich beat Boston at home tonight our fate is back in our own hands because of Boston meeting Cammell Laird on the final day.
So if the Dabbers win tonight 2 wins out of the last 2 WILL guarantee our survival in this division. :cheer:
As a lifelong Wittoner I am naturally a pessimist, I hope we get the points to stay up and if we don’t I hope Lairds are thrown out. But we are Witton not Scum, we never get any luck when we need it, but one day maybe at long last we will.
WHS.
