NEW Warminster Town manager Andy Crabtree hopes the club’s reprieve from relegation can be the catalyst for an upturn in fortunes at the club.

Town finished bottom of the Toolstation League First Division last season and looked to be heading for Wiltshire League football in 2018-19 following a complex restructuring at Step Five level of the non-league pyramid.

Despite Almondsbury UWE and Malmesbury Victoria moving across to Division One West of the Hellenic League, the restructuring did not reprieve Warminster or second-from-bottom Portishead Town, who were earmarked to drop into the Wiltshire and Somerset county leagues respectively, with the Toolstation League First Division reduced to 18 teams.

However, appeals on behalf of both Warminster and Portishead were lodged to restore the Toolstation League to 40 clubs as a whole, and their success ensures the Red and Blacks will continue at the same level of football next season.

The club announced the good news in conjunction with the re-appointment of former boss Crabtree as manager at the weekend, and the Town chief is now looking towards a brighter future at Weymouth Street.

“We were very, very fortunate to get the reprieve, but hopefully now we can start afresh,” said Crabtree.

“A club like this should not really be in the position we were, but we have just gone backwards over the last few years, sadly.

“Hopefully this can draw a line under that and we can start to look upwards.

“I am a Warminster lad and I probably played about 300 games for them when I was younger, and I have been manager before too, so it is a club I am close to.

“I went back to help out last season when they were struggling, but it was just a little bit late.

“We just need to be a bit more competitive. In the last eight or nine games of last season, we started to show that.

“A few mistakes meant we shot ourselves in the foot, but there is plenty of reason to be optimistic.”

Crabtree is now busy attempting to assemble a squad able to compete in the Toolstation League First Division next season.

After being hampered by recent uncertainties off the field, Crabtree hopes things can now start to go much smoother on it.

“I have spoken to a few players and there have been good conversations, but it’s difficult as we are behind every other club,” said Crabtree.

“You talk to a player and they ask what league you are in and you have to tell them you don’t know.

“But there are some good players to have shown an interest and we have some good young players already here too.”