St leonards will be playing Dr Martens League football next season.

Owner Leon Shepp-herdson has sold the club to a five-man consortium headed by chairman John Cornelius and manager Andy Thomson. The deal was announced to players and supporters at The Firs last night.

Cornelius revealed the club would almost have certainly gone bust had the buy-out not taken place. His consortium will be introducing drastic cost-cutting measures for next season.

He said: "Leon's 100 per cent shareholding of the club has been purchased for a substantial sum. Now the five of us who have bought him out will be making a number of changes to the way the club's run."

Until now Saints had been paying people to raise funds or do odd jobs at The Firs. Cornelius insists in future unpaid volunteers will be sought to help behind-the-scenes and the wage bill will also be cut.

The Saints chairman added: "We're even going to be cutting our travelling costs. Some journeys will be made by car and we'll choose cheap coach travel.

"It's going to be real pull our belts in time and that's what we've got to do if this club is going to survive."

Over the past months, the Saints directors have explored proposals to merge with Hastings Town or drop into the Unijet Sussex League. Cornelius said joining forces with Hastings for next season was not feasible. Rejoining the Sussex League was thought to be a backwards step.

He said: "The merger with Hastings couldn't go ahead for next season. Both of us have agreed we couldn't take our discussions any further. We wanted to at least stay in the eastern division and have achieved that."

Thomson, who will now combine his managerial duties with a position on the board, understood his already-low wage bill needed cutting, but is determined he can still build a competitive side for next season.

He said: "One thing we've got to do next year is get some more experienced lads into the side. We've some great youngsters at the club, but you can't win things with just kids."

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