RELEGATION BODY BLOW FOR UNLUCKY WARLEY

The National League produced one of its most spectacular, nail-biting finales for many years during the Division Two weekend at Bath University – with a remarkable relegation battle providing all the excitement (for more details, click on the Results page).

It ended with three clubs locked together on 11 points at the bottom of the table – and unlucky Warley suffering the huge disappointment of relegation. Never before in the League's 42-year history has a club been relegated having totalled that many points.

Invicta, relegated from Division One after the 2003 season, slipped to ninth place and must now face a play-off against Division Three runners-up Sheffield.

Otter duly tied up the title, but only after losing for the first time this season in a splendid match against runners-up Welsh Wanderers.

The relegation struggle is best explained like this:

·        Before the start of the Bath programme, Grantham languished in tenth place on six points, with Warley and Sutton & Cheam on nine and Invicta 11

·        On day one, Grantham showed they had no intention of meekly accepting the drop with stirring victories over Newton Abbot and Sutton

·        Warley, too, showed plenty of fighting spirit to plunge Invicta into trouble with a convincing win

·        The table had a very different look at the beginning of day two. By now Warley had risen to seventh, one point behind Reading. Warley were followed by Invicta and Grantham, with Sutton languishing at the bottom

·        Sutton immediately picked up priceless points with a victory over Reading and, amazingly, Grantham made it three wins out of three with another brave victory over third-placed Solihull

·        With Invicta losing to Reading, it left a final table showing Grantham on 12 points and three teams – Sutton, Invicta and Warley – all on 11 at the foot

At this point, it was a matter of checking back on this season’s results to determine the pecking order. When two or more teams finish equal on points, the first consideration concerns what happened in previous games between those sides.

Warley-Invicta meetings produced a win for each side. So did Sutton-Invicta matches. But crucially Sutton claimed a victory and a draw against Warley. And on the basis of that, the mini table looked like this:

·        Sutton    Two wins, one draw        Five points            Eighth

·        Invicta    Two wins                        Four points            Ninth

·        Warley    One win, one draw        Three points          Tenth

It was as close as that! Seldom can relegation have been suffered in such an unfortunate way and understandably Warley will feel very disappointed at the outcome.