Sadness as football league wound up

One of the oldest football leagues in Shropshire has folded because of a lack of teams.

The Shropshire Alliance will not exist next season after operating for more than 60 years in various guises.

Officials reluctantly decided to call time after facing the prospect of a maximum of just seven teams beginning the league campaign.

"It's a sad day and disappointing because 15 or 20 years ago, we had three divisions with 12 clubs in each," said secretary Kevin Edge.

"We have lost clubs from villages and others from pubs that have closed and the teams from there subsequently folded.

"It's just not viable to run a league with six or seven teams."

The Alliance began with 10 clubs last season but Cockshutt '08 and Crown Colts disbanded in the early stages of the campaign.

Possibility

Champions Rock Rovers have been promoted to the County League division one while Edge said there were fears that Bayston Hill would not continue next season.

Talks are now underway over the possibility of the remaining Alliance clubs – Oswestry Boys Clubs, Oswestry Town Lions, Weston Rhyn, Prees United, Ludlow Town Colts and Hopesgate United – being filtered into either the County League or Telford Combination, although existing clubs in those league will have the final say.

A working party had also been set up to investigate the possibility of merging the three Saturday leagues in Shropshire – the County Premier League, the Alliance and Telford Combination – and those discussions will continue.

The West Shropshire and Shrewsbury Leagues – which were formed in 1945 and 1949 – combined to form the Alliance in the mid-1970s.