Could Sleaford Town get relegation reprieve after Hinckley Leicester Road demise?
Sleaford Town could receive an unexpected reprieve from relegation – thanks to the demise of a club some 70 miles away.
Hinckley Leicester Road, who play at step four of the pyramid in the Northern Premier League Division One Midlands, released a statement at the weekend confirming they intended to go into voluntary liquidation, forming a new club lower down the pyramid.
That means their place in the NPL became vacant and Rugby Town, relegated at the end of the season, have been reprieved and will remain in the division.
That in turn has created a vacancy at step five given Rugby were due to play in the UCL Premier Division South, with speculation rife as the Standard went to press on Tuesday morning as to how it will be filled.
One option would be to offer Sleaford a reprieve from relegation from whilst moving another club laterally to fill Rugby’s place in the South division. Godmanchester Rovers were also relegated from step five but with only 16 points in the South division, along with Cogenhoe United who resigned from the league before the season began.
Sleaford only dropped into the bottom two of Premier North in the final minutes of the season, ultimately being relegated alongside Shirebrook Town.
Reprieves are commonplace during the summer and prior to league allocations being officially ratified, meaning Sleaford will now be waiting to see if they will benefit from the movements elsewhere.
However, other options are believed to include offering Hinckley LR a demotion and place at step six and potentially promoting a club from that level as a result, while the option to ‘do nothing’ is also a strong possibility, instead running the UCL Premier South with 19 teams next season and Sleaford remaining in Division One.
A final decision is likely to be made this week, but as the Standard went to press there had been no confirmation.