The race for the Sills and Betteridge Sunday League Premier Division title has taken another twist this weekend after one of the favourites dropped out of the league. Stags FC, who play at Sudbrooke Drive, failed to field a team in a Ron Eaglen Cup match away at Division 3 side Hartsholme Athletic. Since then, the Ermine club have officially folded from the league citing lack of regular players as the deciding factor.
In previous seasons Stags have enjoyed unrivalled success, winning this League three years on the bounce from 2003 to 2006, with only Golden Eagle and Cherry Willingham pushing them into third last year. They have also appeared in three out of the last five finals in the Ron Eaglen Cup.
The folding should not effect the remaining teams, with both Welton and Golden Eagle having beaten Stags already this season. It does, however, remove another big fixture from the league calender, placing more emphasis on the Welton v Eagle crunch match on the 23rd of December.
Another big point to note is that, with Stags' withdrawl, any former Stag's player is now a free agent and it will be very interesting to see which clubs win the race to seal their signatures. Welton are reportedly unlikely to move on any newly-released players, with Big Al seemingly happy with the vast array of talent already available to him.