By RUSSELL SMITH WITNEY Town chairman Brian Constable has spoken of his increasing disillusionment with the game - and admitted he would quit the club if a big-money backer offered to take over.

Although Witney are having a good season on the pitch with the club riding high in the Dr Martens League Eastern Division, Constable has become more frustrated than ever with the club being hit by dwindling attendances while at the same time they face increased travel costs.

Town's chairman, who has offered to step down on several occasions in the past only to remain at the helm with no-one suitable coming forward, said: "I am getting very disillusioned with this football business and everyone at the club knows I am not happy."

And he added that he would welcome a takeover.

"I would jump out of the chair tomorrow," he said. "I would like that to happen because I think maybe you get stale after a while. "I have got to the stage now where I can't do much more. I saved them from disappearing and I have got the club on a steady line.

"I have only made a commitment to the club until the end of this season - after which I have not decided what is going on.

"I have not said I will stay when basically I am disillusioned with the way the whole thing is running, and I am not happy with the club's finances."

He revealed that the club had lost money over the last three years - this year it was £6,000 and the previous year £8,000.

"It is an uphill situation and every year the losses continue to grow and how do you stop it?"

Constable added that Witney still intend to give notice by the January 1 deadline that they would quit the Dr Martens League due to increased travelling - if there are no changes in the regionalisation of the divisions.

He added: "The directors of Witney Town Football Club decided and voted unanimously to take the club out of the Dr Martens League and put them into Division 3 of the Ryman League. "We were then told unofficially that the FA were bringing in changes and looking at sectioning our type of football with clubs being zoned, but we have not heard anything from the FA."

Constable has been further angered by the league's decision to hold their annual meeting on a boat in Harwick Docks - providing Witney officials with another long trip.

"What sort of fantasy world are we living in?" he said. "I believe that sooner or later someone has got to wake up."

Story date: Wednesday 15 December

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