Kenilworth Town pull out of Midland Combination

They will, however, continue to run two teams in the Stratford Alliance.

Club secretary Matthew Sewell said: “This has been the hardest decision we’ve had to make since we started running the club.

“We had to make a choice between working on the new clubhouse or running a team in the Combination.

“Although the Combination is a very good league, it is also very expensive, with running one team in that costing twice as much as running both our teams in the Stratford Alliance.

“We therefore had to decide on how we would spend our limited funds and focus our fundraising efforts.

“Although we have made good progress in recent seasons and feel that we have a management team and squad in place to push on in Division One, we had to make the best decision for the long-term future of the club, which is definitely to focus on getting the new clubhouse up and running.”

Management duo Wayne Goss and Rich Kay have agreed to stay on at the club, with Town planning to apply to re-enter the Combination when they are in their new facilities in 12 months.

However, chairman Andy Brooks said there is still a lot of work to be done on the fundraising side if the club is to achieve its aim of being a community asset.

“The intention is to build the clubhouse in such a way that it can be used by community groups and provide a resource that benefits the area at large,” said Brooks.

“In order to do this then we need to make sure we plan this correctly and raise the right amount of funds. If there is anybody who has ideas about either of these then we’d warmly welcome any input that we can get.”

Sewell added: “Although this is a step backwards, we’re going to make sure that we’re much stronger off the pitch when we return to the Combination.

“We’d therefore invite anyone who is interested in becoming involved in a local football club to contact us.”

Contact Sewell on 07780 995820 or [email protected]