Sittingbourne have reached a crossroads after they were placed in Ryman League, Division 1 North for next season.

If the Brickies do go north, they will lose 12 Kent derbies and travel almost a thousand miles more than they did last season.

With trips to Dereham and Wroxham in Norfolk replacing local clashes with Faversham and Whitstable, the club’s finances are set to take a battering.

Sittingbourne assistant secretary Peter Pitts said: “We never thought they’d do this because we’ve done so much to save money by moving to Woodstock.

“With the expense of going up to Norfolk to play Dereham and Wroxham, not to mention the huge drop in crowds, this is going to put us back to square one.

“There’s all sorts of talk of what we can do. We could drop into the Kent League, which we don’t want to do. We could go out of business altogether. Or we could ask for a parachute payment from the FA.

“There are two clubs involved because it’s going to be a partnership when we go to Woodstock Park. They’ve dropped two other teams to enable us to play there, so it will have a big impact.”