A CLUB volunteer claims Worcester and District Football League officials had been warned that enforced promotion would lead to Arrow FC’s demise.

The Nunnery Wood-based Sunday outfit dropped out of the league last month with Darren Faulkner, who collected player subs and ran the line, citing player commitment as the biggest factor.

But he added the club had made clear its concerns over being pushed up to the Premier Division having finished fourth from bottom in Division One last season and that he had personally told league secretary Wayne Hanson that Arrow “would not be playing after a few months”.

Hanson explained the move had been necessary due to top-flight trio Hallow, Gloster Arms and Upton Snodsbury folding over the summer as well as second-tier runners-up Prince of Wales.

FC Malvern and Drakes Broughton Rangers ­— the bottom two in last season’s Premier Division ­— got relegated with Arrow among six clubs drafted in from the level below, a move that proved a bridge too far according to Faulkner.

“It was down to a lack of players and commitment, plus we were put in the wrong league to start with,” he said.

“We said we would struggle in the Premier. I said to the league secretary that they would not be playing after a few months, I could see it.

“We said the players were not good enough for the level they got put into but the league would not listen to us.

“Lee (Seldon, manager) and Jason (Holder, secretary) told them we would not be strong enough to compete in that league, they put across their point but the league did not want to know. They said they had to push so many up.

“Players said they wanted transfers and the whole morale of the team went down, people just stopped turning up. We ended up with 11 or 12 players over the final few weeks and it was just not working.

“They should not have put them up to the Premier with the likes of Perrywood and Callow End, they were just too strong. Being beaten by five or six was no good.

“The committee should listen to the people who run the sides instead of taking it upon themselves to push teams up and down the leagues.

“There are new teams in the lower divisions with players who are good enough for the Premier Division but they still leave them there because they are new.”

In response, Hanson said: “Some of the hardest decisions we make each year are over forming the divisions.

“This summer was tricky, with us losing so many clubs we knew we had to fold a division. There was always going to be a natural movement up.

“Arrow were not in our plans to go up initially, we held talks with the Bromsgrove League about forming a joint Premiership but that fell through.

“We wanted 10 in the top division to make it a good competition and had Prince of Wales ­— last season’s runners-up in Division One ­— not folded Arrow would have made the cut (to stay where they were).

“We do listen to clubs and get bombarded with requests over where teams feel they should be. We take into consideration playing form from the previous season and look to do things consistently and fairly.

“We have a policy to relegate the bottom two where possible and Drakes Broughton and FC Malvern did not reach double figures last season.

“The standard of football can vary, if a couple of players move on there can be quite a swing and these things happen every season.

“I think if we put it out to the clubs we would have two or three in the Premier Division and a lot in Division Three.

“It was unfortunate that we had to put Arrow in the Premier but the mechanism we applied was fair. That was where the cut off was.”

Arrow won their opening two fixtures but lost the next eight before deciding to call it a day.