Oakwood Football Club have folded after more than 85 years as one of the pre-eminent clubs in the Maidstone non-league football scene.

The former Kent Amateur League champions, who played at Otham, endured a torrid season, finishing bottom and winning just two of their 24 games in Division 1 East of the Vandanel Kent County League.

Secretary and former player and manager Nick Jenkinson said: "We have been struggling to get hold of players to commit and play week in, week out – we had about 80 players registered last season.

"The same goes for people to be involved in the running of the club. It’s been harder and harder to replace people who have left over the past four or five years.

"A lack of funds is also to blame. We have struggled to get sponsorship and the players have been funding the club through their subs. It is not cheap to run a County League club these days."

Mr Jenkinson revealed: "The decision was made halfway through the season. If you drop out of the league then you can end up getting fined so we made sure we had given the league our provisional decision by March.

"It is a shame, but we thought last summer that it was going to happen then. We won a competition to get to play at Old Trafford and that was a fantastic experience.

"That gave the club a bit of impetus to carry on this year, but some of the senior players left after that, knowing it would never get better than that day.

"Oakwood have always been about the players, we don’t own a ground and we don’t really have a base, so without the commitment and interest of players there is no club."

Do you have any memories of Oakwood to share? Have your say below.