The Board would like to apologise to all shareholders and supporters for the fact that we feel unable to take up promotion next season especially after the achievements of the players and management team, which we thoroughly applaud.

Cambs Times: MD of Elgoods Brewery, Belinda Sutton juggles a football at the official announcement that Elgoods will be the main Wisbech Town FC sponsors. Watching L-R Elgoods sales manager Marcus Beecher, John Petch, Barry Carter andn Dave Parsons.MD of Elgoods Brewery, Belinda Sutton juggles a football at the official announcement that Elgoods will be the main Wisbech Town FC sponsors. Watching L-R Elgoods sales manager Marcus Beecher, John Petch, Barry Carter andn Dave Parsons. (Image: Archant)

This statement has not been issued earlier at the express wishes of the manager who wanted to tell his players personally after the last league game. We have complied with this and have acted in the best interests of the shareholders and Wisbech Town Football Club Ltd in not taking promotion.

We were elected as officials of the Club with certain responsibilities, mainly to ensure the club remains in a viable position.

We would be remiss if we pursued promotion next season with its burden of extra wages, travel and expenses, which we could not have maintained, and would have jeopardised our very existence.

Unfortunately we had to apply for promotion last November, when our expenses were sustainable. Three months of dreadful weather slashed our income but not our expenses, which at the time were met by certain individuals.

We will now endeavour to consolidate to ensure that Wisbech Town Football Club Ltd remains a competitive and viable force.

As a group the Board also wanted to achieve promotion, as we are all first and foremost supporters, but hard decisions had to be taken, and we were prepared to make them even though we knew we would be criticised.

We hope that all fans and shareholders will understand that this decision was only taken in the best interests of WTFC.

Barry Carter

Chairman, Wisbech Town Football Club