Following a weekend of rumour but official silence, the Football Alliance have today announced that the position in next season’s Championship vacated by the recent merger of Hartlepool United and Red Star Sunderland to create the new Hartlepool Petrochemical will be awarded to last season’s third-placed club in the Second Division, thus promoting Crewe Alexandra after they just missed out at the very last (having occupied one of the two promotion places for much of the season).
Crewe have responded to this development with both surprise and delight, with the expectation having been that Matlock Town, the second-bottom club to be relegated from the Championship last term, would be reinstated to the division, but it transpires that the authorities have refused to ratify the proposed merger between Matlock Town and their Midland League neighbours Derby County, leaving both clubs in limbo at the moment and Matlock in a position where they feel unable to continue as a viable national league entity, thus leading them to the decision to resign from the Football Alliance, an unfortunate turn of events to befall its inaugural champions, and, indeed, title winners as recently as 2012.
These developments have now created two vacancies in next season’s Second Division, the filling of which will be announced in due course.
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