A HOST of non-league football clubs in Suffolk and Essex will have to wait at least another 10 nervy days before finding out which league they will be playing in next season.

Stuart Watson

A HOST of non-league football clubs in Suffolk and Essex will have to wait at least another 10 nervy days before finding out which league they will be playing in next season.

The Football Association had originally hoped to have made their decisions on promotions, relegations and sideways moves by Friday, May 15, but it has now been confirmed that no decision will be made until Tuesday, May 26 at the earliest.

The reason for this is that King's Lynn Football Club have now lodged an appeal over the FA's decision to relegate their first team from the Blue Square North because their stadium did not meet the required standard.

That appeal will be formally heard in Derby on Tuesday, May 26 and any further movement below step two of the non-league pyramid is therefore dependent on that outcome.

Those left in limbo include Witham Town, Lowestoft Town, Tiptree United, Harwich & Parkeston and Haverhill Rovers.

Ridgeons League champions Lowestoft would prefer a promotion to the Ryman League rather than the British Gas Southern League, while Tiptree United are hopeful of a sideways move into the Essex Senior League.

Witham Town - who finished second bottom of the Ryman League Division One North - would prefer to be relegated to the Essex Senior League rather than the Ridgeons League, while the outcome of all of the above will determine whether both, one or none of the Ridgeons League's Premier Division's bottom two clubs - Harwich & Parkeston and Haverhill - will be relegated to Division One.