Willow Park withdraw from Leinster Senior League

Willow Park FC has withdrawn from the Leinster Senior League with immediate effect.

In a statement issued last night, the Athlone club said it has made "the hard decision to withdraw from the Leinster Senior League with immediate effect".

"This difficult decision was made in the best interest for future development within our club," said the statement.

"This is a football decision based solely on the basis of securing a long term future for player development within Willow Park FC.

"Unfortunately, at present Willow Park FC feel we do not have the right football structures and support structures in place to continue at this level of football and believe now is the time to regroup, build again and put the right structures in place to compete and then be structurally stable in the Leinster Senior League.

"If we continue going in the direction that we are going, it is our belief that we would damage player development and progression in the club," the statement continued.

Willow Park has thanked past committees, managers, coaches, players and supporters who gave "a huge amount of dedication and commitment in order for Willow Park FC to play and compete at this high level".

"We apologise to you that we could not continue the good work that you started but promise that we will leave no stone unturned in putting in place structures that will see Willow Park FC play once again in the Leinster Senior League in the future."

The club has thanked the current staff and players and for the "huge effort" they have made. "You are the ones who will begin our journey to try and reach these levels again," said the statement.

Last June, Willow Park appointed Colin Fortune as director of football and manager of its Leinster Senior League team.

With his League of Ireland experience - he was Athlone Town manager and assistant manager with Galway United - hopes were high that Fortune could bring Willow to another level.

However, things have not worked out as hoped this season and now the club has now made the difficult decision to withdraw from the Leinster Senior League.

Since joining the Leinster Senior League (which is intermediate grade football, just below the League of Ireland), the Athlone club achieved four successive promotions which took them to the second flight.

Last season, Willow were relegated from Division Senior 1 Sunday. Willow have played four matches in the Senior Sunday 1A Division this season, drawing one and losing three, which left them second from bottom in the table.