WORCESTER City have been paired with no fewer than SIX promoted clubs and handed some chunky trips in next season’s Midland Football League (MFL) Premier Division.

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There are seven changes to the 20-team division with Gresley relegated from above, Heather St John’s and Racing Club Warwick coming up from Division One, Tividale and Haughmond elevated from the West Midlands (Regional) League and Nottinghamshire outfits Selston and Newark Flowserve promoted from the East Midlands Counties League.

The nine runners-up with the best points-per-game records joined the champions of 19 regional leagues from the level below in going up with each of the MFL’s feeders grabbing that second chance.

It means FA bosses have had to move out four clubs, transferring local rivals Westfields to the Hellenic League and Leicestershire trio Quorn, Shepshed Dynamo and Loughborough University to the United Counties League.

With Ilkeston Town promoted, it means four of last season’s top seven have left the division but there is an influx of teams buoyed by the momentum of promotion.

Newark takes over from South Normanton Athletic as the lengthiest journey of the league season for City fans, a 210-mile round trip based on travelling from the headquarters of Worcester News on Hylton Road.

However, the MFL Premier’s continued shift north east seems set to be short lived with plans for two extra leagues at step five – City’s level – planned for the start of the 2020-21 season.

One of the new divisions is set to cut through the current MFL Premier footprint with Worcester likely to be at the centre of a map that moves south-westerly should they remain at this level.

PROVISIONAL ALLOCATION – Midland Football League Premier Division: (20 clubs) AFC Wulfrunians, Boldmere St Michaels, Coventry Sphinx, Coventry United, Gresley – RELEGATED, Haughmond – PROMOTED, Heather St John's – PROMOTED, Highgate United, Long Eaton United, Lye Town, Newark Flowserve – PROMOTED, Racing Club Warwick – PROMOTED, Romulus, Selston – PROMOTED, South Normanton Athletic, Sporting Khalsa, Stourport Swifts, Tividale – PROMOTED, Walsall Wood, Worcester City.