THE men trying to keep football in Ledbury say they need all the support they can get.

It was announced last week that Ledbury Town will close due to rising costs that have “got out of control”.

An agreement has been reached between the landlord, Property Solutions (Ledbury) Ltd and the club for their two remaining clubs to finish their seasons. But Phil Preedy, manager of the reserves side, is hopeful that the teams can carry on playing for much longer

“Myself, Richard Thick, the Colts manager, and assistant managers Paul Mann and Chris Stone are in the process of trying to maintain football,” said Preedy.

“Our main aim is to finish the season here.

“Hopefully we can try and secure something for next season but both sides are doing well and are in numerous cup semi-finals and one final and are flying high in their leagues.

“We just need to make sure that we finish the season here because we have 60 plus players signed on.”

Preedy said that Ledbury Swifts, who have a number of junior teams, have said they could use their Ross Road base, while there may also be scope to use a pitch in Bromsberrow.

“Ultimately our aim is to stay here for as long as possible,” said Preedy.

“We’re still here and are hoping to be here for a very long time.”

Refreshments were sold at the side of the pitch during the Colts’ game against Orleton Colts Reserves to raise money for the teams due to the bar being out of use.

“We’ve got to pay officials, put food on for the opposition teams, but on top of that you’ve got running costs for this place, like £50 for a line marker and money for washing kits,” said Thick.

“Four of us worked tirelessly this week to secure football here for the rest of this season, next season and as long as we possibly can. But we need the support of everyone.”

Thick said the news of the club’s closure shocked everyone.

“We knew finances had been bad, but didn’t know how bad,” he said.

A solitary goal from Liam Watton in the 13th minute won the HFL FW Petersen Cup quarter-final tie for Orleton Colts Reserves, but Thick said he could not have asked any more from his team.

“We had 12 players who are 19 and under, this time last year they were playing for a local side in the under-17’s league," said Thick.

“We got thrown together at the last moment and entered the league late this season.

“We lost our first two games, but bar one draw, have won every game since.

“Their future in the game is massive."

Watton had the easy task of tapping the ball into an empty net after beating the on-rushing Ledbury goalkeeper James Loader.

But Ledbury could count themselves very unfortunate not to have got on the scoresheet after missing a host of chances.

Jamie Gladwin should have equalised when one-on-with with Orleton goalkeeper Rory Arnold before ballooning an effort over the bar on 20 minutes.

Orleton also had a chance to extend their lead three minutes before half-time, but Dave Davies hit the side-netting.

Zeki Koral saw his penalty saved by Arnold in the second half, with Powell's rebound lacking power.

Powell then rattled the corner of the crossbar and post 11 minutes from time before Orleton saw a goal disallowed for offside.