WESTFIELDS are facing the might of the financial giants as they look to gain promotion out of the Midlands Premier League.

The Hereford side has been one of the front runners in the division over the last few years but have constantly come up against sides with bigger budgets.

Next season appears to be no different with promotion rivals Worcester City already flashing their cash ahead of the new campaign.

Goalkeeper Matt Gwynne has left the allpay.park side this week, instead choosing to ply his trade at their league rivals, who the Hereford Times understands are paying him £140 a week.

Last season Westfields lost striker Jamie Molyneux to Hereford FC when the Edgar Street side was said to have paid close to £300 a week for his services.

Westfields manager Sean Edwards says that Worcester City have been offering the league's best players the biggest wages.

He said: "We have to look at our whole budget and we are not splashing out the sort of money Worcester City will do.

"There are big teams in this league and we need to make sure we spend our money wisely as we only pay expenses.

"It is like having another Hereford FC coming into the league as they are going to expect 500 fans or more if they are doing well and if they are spending near the budget they had last season they are going to buy the best players at this level.

"A lad I went for told me that he couldn't refuse the offer that they (Worcester) had made him. Bromsgrove Sporting are very similar and had 3,500 fans for their FA Vase semi-final.

"Rugby Town are also coming down from a good level so I think the league could be the toughest ever. It does mean that we need to spend our money wisely.

"There wasn't really a place for Matt (Gwynne) this season and there was no point trying to keep two first class goalkeepers happy.

"We like to play out from the back which suits Keiron (Blackburn) more than Matt."

This week, Westfields have welcomed the signings of North Leigh skipper defender Matt Sysum, left-sided attacker Lewis Platt from Malvern Town and the return of Anthony Robbins from Pegasus Juniors.

Defenders Jamie Saunston and Sam Rawlings are not due to sign for Westfields next season due to work commitments.

"We have to find alternatives in those positions and a couple of lads I had lined up who I thought might have came to Westfields haven't because of what Worcester are offering," added Edwards.

"We scored a lot of goals last season and need to maintain that pace going forwards. We were solid at the back at the start of the season but not the end so we needed to strengthen in defensive areas.

"Sysum is established at the level above and we need his leadership for some of the tough away games where we fell short in some of that leadership."

The Hereford Times would like to point out that the sums paid to Matt Gwynne and Jamie Molyneux, which were quoted in the printed version of Thursday’s paper, were not given to the newspaper by Sean Edwards.

We would like to make it clear that the newspaper received the information from other trusted sources and not the Westfields manager.