SECOND Division bottom club Brandon are looking doomed to relegation, but they might be reprieved at the end of the season – and so they have become Cleator Moor Celtic fans.

Brandon have revived in recent weeks, and have shown plenty of fight in a late attempt under recently-appointed manager Lee Jewitt to get away from the bottom of the table.

But unfortunately, they’re running out of games, and it looks as if they’ll finish bottom, and under normal circumstances be relegated to the Wearside League.

But a combination of circumstances might hand them a reprieve at the end of the season, although they would have to wait for confirmation from the FA.

The Northern League has two feeder leagues, the Northern Alliance and Wearside League, and in theory, promotion and relegation exists between the feeder leagues and the Northern League.

Blyth Town applied from the Northern Alliance, but they have yet to erect floodlights and a perimeter fence because of problems with residents’ objections, and have run out of time. They have withdrawn their application.

Stockton Town are one of six clubs who have applied for promotion to the next level from the Wearside League, and are the favourites to win the title. After last weekend’s games, they were fourteen points clear of the rest. They had carried out a huge amount of work to their ground to reach the Northern League standard, but a major issue over the use of their ground arose last week which torpedoed their application, at least for this season.

That will now open the door for one of the other five clubs, one of whom is Cumbria club Cleator Moor Celtic, who along with Whitehaven, have applied for the North West Counties League instead of the Northern League.

If one of those two clubs finish second and their ground is up to standard, then no other club will come up from the Wearside League, which means that Brandon will probably be saved.

No team coming up from the Northern Alliance will also mean that the second bottom in the Northern League won’t be relegated.

“We’ll be hoping that Cleator Moor can finish second in the Wearside League if we have a chance of a reprieve,” said Brandon secretary Barry Ross. “But regardless of what happens and which league we’re playing in, we’re confident that we’ll have a better season next time round.

“Our manager, Lee Jewitt, has a built a tidy little side in recent weeks, but unfortunately he’s not had enough time to turn it all around, and we’re going to run out of games in order. If we are relegated, then we’ll certainly fight to get back into the Northern League.

“Lee has already told us that he’s stopping with the club, along with his assistant Neil Bell, which is great news because they’re two good lads.”

Ross says that Brandon will keep battling to the end. “We won’t give up, because you never know what might happen. Regardless of what happens, we’ll definitely still be carrying on, in no way will the club fold.”

Brandon were also keeping an eye on the situation involving Celtic Nation, who hit crisis point a fortnight ago regarding finance and power, but after talks last Thursday with new blood, have withdrawn their provisional resignation.

“There is still a bit of work to do on the negotiations, but everything should go through,” said secretary Jeff Carr, who admits that he is relieved that the saga has ended.

“One or two people are coming in to help out, and they’ve given us guarantees for the future. However, they’re not big money men, and we’ll all have to work together to help the club.

“We can’t rely on just one person, everybody will be raising money to help the club move forward.

“But the problem is, as every club knows, that it’s very hard to generate funds, and so we’ll all have to knuckle down. Every pound will help the club.”

The club will also be keeping its name, and Carr denied speculation that Carlisle City would take them over. The Nation are now leasing their ground from City, who are in the Northern Alliance. That arrangement has allowed them to reduce their costs.

“The two clubs won’t be merging,” said Carr. “Each will be keeping their separate identities. We’ll simply be subletting off them.”

Carr also revealed that the club will be looking for a new manager at the end of the season. “Our manager Mark Boyd, will be stepping down at the end of the season, and maybe some of the players will leave. I’ve got to pay tribute to him and the players though, because they’ve done very well this season, especially as some of them hadn’t played at this standard before.”

It’s almost certain that the club will be relegated from the first division, only twelve months since they were the main challengers to Spennymoor for the title.

Shildon are setting up two new junior teams for the start of next season.

The club is steadily building up its youth section, with the aims of providing coaching for youngsters of all ages, and giving them an opportunity to play football for other teams within the club.

Director of coaching Chris Hughes said; “We are setting up two new teams for the 2015/16 season at U14 and U16 age groups in Saturday leagues. We would like these teams to be as strong as possible so that they can feed into the U18's, reserves and first team.”

The club is also organising trial games at Dean Street in the last week of April for under 14s and under 15s on Monday 27th April, and Under 12s and Under 13s on Thursday 30th April.

The Under 18s are also playing Middlesbrough on April 28th, and the reserves are playing Walker on April 29th.

If you would like to book a place for any of the trial games please contact;

Chris Hughes 07793844952/christopher.hughes@live.co.uk with the name of the player/age group and preferred position.

The Northern League management committee will meet on Thursday to decide what do about Ashington allegedly playing an ineligible player in their League cup semi final win over Newton Aycliffe last Tuesday night.

Ashington fielded Dylan Armstrong, who they’d signed from Hartlepool last Saturday, but under league cup rules, he should have been registered at least fourteen days before the game.

Aycliffe spotted the error, and have queried it with the league.

There is a precedent. Guisborough once fielded five ineligible players in their Ernest Armstrong cup semi final at Penrith seven years ago, and were kicked out of the competition.