UniBond Premier: Play off round up

12:45pm Monday 5th May 2008

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WITTONsuffered the double whammy of play off frustration in consecutive campaigns when they lost on penalties to Buxton on Tuesday.

It was the third consecutive occasion that the club finishing as runners up in the Premier had failed to go up.

Instead it was third placed Gateshead who eased their way to promotion, beating Eastwood in midweek and then the Bucks in front of a bumper International Stadium crowd on Saturday.

FC United of Manchester became the first lower tier runners-up to gain promotion via the play offs when they came from behind to beat Skelmersdale after Skem played all the second half with ten men.

They finished the game with nine.

The Division One South play off final went to extra time and penalties with Nantwich, who had come from behind to beat Grantham on Tuesday, overcoming Sheffield on spot kicks after the sides had finished all square at 2-2.

More than six thousand fans watched the three play-off games.

The curtain fell on the season with Fleetwood adding the Peter Swales Memorial Shield to their Premier Division title with a 2-1 win over Bradford Park Avenue.

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Ups and downs
Fleetwood Town are promoted to Blue Square North as UniBond Premier Division champions. They are joined by play off winners Gateshead.

Leigh RMI, Vauxhall Motors and Hucknall Town are relegated to the UniBond Premier Division from Blue Square North.

Lincoln United, Stamford and Leek Town are relegated from the UniBond Premier Division.

They will be replaced by UniBond Division One North title winners Bradford Park Avenue and play off victors FC United of Manchester.

Coming up from UniBond Division One South are de-facto champions Cammell Laird (Retford finished first but cannot be promoted after failing to fulfil ground improvement requirements in time) and play off winners Nantwich Town, so taking the UniBond Premier Division back up to it's full complement of 22 teams.