FOOTBALL: End of the road as Witney Town admit defeat (From Bicester Advertiser)

FOOTBALL: End of the road as Witney Town admit defeat

10:00am Thursday 14th February 2013 in Sport By Nick Farrant, Sports reporter specialising in Non League Football. Call me on 01865 425488

WITNEY Town, one of Oxfordshire’s oldest football clubs, are no more.

They resigned from the Uhlsport Hellenic League yesterday and folded due to lack of funds.

Earlier this month, the cash-strapped Premier Division club were evicted the Community Stadium because they were unable to pay the rent.

They had hoped to groundshare with neighbours Carterton, but lack of funds meant they were unable to sign a rental agreement and yesterday they admitted defeat.

“From what I have hear, it’s the end of the club, which is a massive disappointment,” said former chairman Dave Donovan.

Donovan, who quit his role a week ago, added: “It’s a very sad day. I had discussions with the Carterton chairman, Tom Amer, who put it before their committee.

“They came back to us with a rent that was quite a reasonable rate, but it was still quite challenging for us and we couldn’t see that we had the financial ability to do that.

“Having lost the Community Stadium, we had no way of raising enough revenue.”

Founded in 1885, Witney Town folded in 2001, before a group of supporters formed Witney United the following year.

In 2011, the club reverted to their original name Witney Town after re-forming as a registered charity.