WINTERBOURNE United chairman Robyn Maggs has revealed why his side made a sudden exit from the Toolstation Western League last week, saying that it was not ‘sustainable’ to continue.

The club were haemorrhaging cash every month in costs throughout their various teams, including the reserves and junior sides.

In fact, Maggs admitted that ‘the playing budget was crippling’ at Winterbourne.

And Maggs has responded to Thornbury Town who wanted to know why United played their GFA Challenge Trophy third round tie, which Winterbourne won on penalties after a 3-3 draw, last Saturday week when they must have known the team would be resigning days later.

Maggs answered the question saying: “We did not make the decision until the weekend (of that GFA Trophy match at Thornbury’s Mundys Playing Fields).”

The biggest problem which faced Winterbourne’s existence in the Western League has been generation of revenue. Winterbourne’s first team have been playing at the Gloucestershire FA’s 3G facilities at Almondsbury as part of a groundshare agreement with Toolstation League rivals Roman Glass St George over the past few years.

With the demise of the first team, Winterbourne United’s reserve side now become, effectively, the first team and Maggs hopes they will one day be playing in the Gloucestershire County League.

But Maggs wants to use the club’s traditional home of Parkside Avenue, Winterbourne Village, as the base for the future as it brings them revenue where the GFA facility did not.

For now, however, he explained why things had to come to a halt last week, saying: “We’ve tasted Western League Premier Division football for the past three-and-a-half years since switching from the Hellenic League and we’ve enjoyed it. But it’s simply not sustainable for a club like ours to compete properly at that level.

“The fact is it was costing us around three thousand pounds a month to run all our teams and when you don’t have your own ground to cater for that level of football, and your own bar to open four to five days a week, the income stream just isn’t there; it becomes totally impractical.

“When you have your own ground with the required facilities for that standard of football, you don’t have to hire anything and really we were punching above our weight, and the playing budget was crippling.”

Maggs said the decision to withdraw from the Western League was the right one. “I have no issues with that decision; it’s a burden off my shoulders, a relief. It’s been too expensive and too much work, and it’s been a worry. I’m sleeping much better now.

“The club is actually in a strong position, with a successful reserves, a third team, an under-18s team and kids teams. All we’ve done is make the club financially viable. It was never going to be a light at the end of the tunnel; it was a train coming and we had to deal with it head-on.”