ANDY Whing has called for the amount of travelling clubs in Vanarama National League North face to be looked at by the authorities.

As one of the most southern teams in the division next season, Whing’s Banbury United are set to face almost 6,000 miles on the road.

Other clubs such as Bishop’s Stortford, Brackley Town and Gloucester City face mammoth away trips to Blyth Spartans, Spennymoor Town and South Shields next season, and vice versa.

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The division set-up has been criticised by non-league supporters, and Puritans boss Whing agreed that there needs to be a review.

He told this newspaper: “The travelling is ridiculous, you need that infrastructure behind you to cope with it.

“It’s probably the toughest league in the pyramid and most of the players have got full-time jobs.

“You can be leaving at two o’clock in the afternoon for an evening game, which means booking time off work, and then you’re getting back at three in the morning.

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“It’s tough for supporters as well, travelling there especially when money is tight, and possibly the league needs to look at it.

“If you look at Oxford City, we’re not that far from them, but we were travelling triple the distance they were last season.

“It’s tough but I suppose that’s the football pyramid.

“It needs addressing and looking at, but I couldn’t give answer as to what can be done about it.”

The Puritans though are set to embark on a second successive season in National League North.

The club’s historic first campaign at that high a level saw them finish 17th in the table, five points clear of the relegation zone.

Despite problems with injuries and squad depth in the second half of the season, Whing guided Banbury to safety after initially making a rapid start to life in National League North.

He said: “It was always going to be a tough season going into a new league.

“At the start of the season, it was pretty much the same team with one or two new faces, but we had the same core and we had a good start.

“Selling Morgan Roberts to Swindon made things difficult for us as he was unbelievable, and then a few injuries started to get to us.

“We were relying on loans and they got us to the end of the season.

“The last five or six months of the season were really tough with injuries and squad depth, and then not having any strikers at the end of the season.

“All in all though it was a remarkable achievement and to get safe with breathing space was great.”

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Whing added: “The players are absolutely magnificent and quite a lot of them played 40-plus games.

“Our backs were against the wall from January onwards.

“The players have had to learn while doing it and when they have dips in form, you want to take players out, but in the last five months we weren’t able to do that.

“It was always going to be tough, however we’ve learnt a hell of a lot as a club, and so have me and the coaching staff.

“The results didn’t always match the performances. We had a lot of games where we had loads of chances but couldn’t make it count.”