Marlow and Oxford Merge

Following last season’s relegation from the Championship, it has today been announced that Oxford Excelsior have decided to merge with Marlow, who themselves only just retained their place in the top flight. The new club will be named Excelsior Marlow, based in Marlow, assume Marlow’s Championship status, their playing and honours history (including four league titles and a European Cup, of course), and sport the colours of Marlow, those famous blue and red quartered shirts with white shorts.

A significant consequence of the merger is that it means, of course, that what would have been the now-defunct Oxford’s place in next season’s Second Division becomes vacant - the Football Alliance have moved swiftly to announce that this vacancy will be allocated to the runners-up in the 2014-15 regional leagues promotion play-off, Bohemians. The winners of the play-off, Birkenhead’s Torpedo Tranmere, of the North West Counties League, have automatically replaced the relegated Newcastle United.