NORTHWICH Victoria chairman Brian Turner admits the days since being told his club will be competing in the Midlands League next season have put a strain on him.

The implications for players, managers and fans of those clubs affected by being moved laterally into a league well beyond their usual playing circle is seemingly not taken into account by the FA’s National League System allocations process.

Extra travel, more expense; fewer home games and less income during a cost of living crisis is backbreaking stuff.

And those at the top, the club chiefs thrown into the deep end and put under pressure to find a way out of the mess they say their clubs have been placed in, obviously feel it more than most.

“It is a strain, especially if I wake up in the night,” said Turner.

“And it’s here we go again, I’m thinking what are we going to do, how are we going to do this, what’s going to be the questions from the FA when we meet up with them, have we done our appeal right? I just don’t sleep well at all.

“This is a whole new level of strain and stress, beyond that when I was involved in 2015-16 when there was tremendous pressure from being in administration.

“And what I don’t want to see is that happening again. Because this time, if the club folds, it would fold for real.

“I'm not trying to bump this up in any way. Non-league counties clubs, which is what we are at the moment, are already feeling the pinch all round.”

While Vics and Winsford United are going through the mill attempting to rescue the situation, there is another Northwich club set to lose out if Vics are forced into the Midland League.

That is Witton Albion, who take rent off Vics in a groundshare agreement at the U Lock It Stadium.

“We don’t have our own ground and we’re very grateful to Witton Albion, who we have a good rapport with,” said Turner.

“The groundshare agreement we have with them works perfectly for both clubs at the present moment.

“But if we move to the Midlands, Witton are going to lose revenue from us because we’d be playing four less league matches at Wincham Park than we did last season.”

And that is if Vics survive The FA’s kick in the teeth. There would be a significant loss of rental revenue for Witton if Vics folded.

Turner explained when Vics first became aware of the potential reallocation to the Midlands League.

“We only got wind of this right towards the end of last season when a publication put out a league structure and it was very much 100 per cent of what the end result was when we heard last Monday," he said.

“There was no consultation. I know there was no consultation with the North West Counties League committee and no consultation with us.

“I could have put this together in respect of how we could have resolved this where nobody was affected but there was no consultation.

“The club is 149 years old now, I hope and pray that we can achieve our 150th birthday. I just pray that common sense prevails in all of this.”