KINGTON Town have applied to join the Herefordshire Premier after stepping down from the West Midlands Football League.

The decision has been made to resign from their position in West Midlands Division One due to a lack of players at the standard required to compete.

"We just can't get the players to sustain a club at that level," said chairman Martin Powell.

"We are failing to attract the players and there is not the quality or the commitment from players needed. There is nothing we can do as we can't sign players of the quality to sustain a challenge or compete and for the last three years we've been at the bottom end. We are going to step back and rely on our youth to build a side.

"Some of the players at the back end of last season said that they had had enough of the travelling. They want to play football but not the travelling so hopefully with the drop down we will retain them.

"The big issue for us was attracting players as there are decent standard clubs in Hereford. We can't attract anybody over the Welsh border either as the FA and Welsh FA are making it increasingly difficult."

Manager Sam Bowen has resigned as first team manager with Stuart Davies taking charge for next season.

Kington hope that their first team will play in the Herefordshire Premier and reserves in Division Two.

"We will bounce back and have got a good crop of players coming through but they are three or four years away as we need to bed them in," said Powell.

"It's a shame as we want to play as high standard as possible but the reality is that we can't attract the players so have requested to drop back down."