Seven new teams join Lincs League

Appleby Frodingham, Bottesford Town Development, Epworth Town, Grantham Town Academy, Keelby United, Nunsthorpe Tavern and Tetney Rovers will join the step seven division, due to FA ratification, after being voted in by existing clubs and the management committee. However, fellow applicants 780 Coaching were not voted in. The new clubs will join Brigg Town CIC, Gainsborough Trinity Reserves, Grimsby Borough Reserves, Horncastle Town, Immingham Town, Lincoln Moorlands, Lincoln United Development, Louth Town, Nettleham, Sleaford Town Rangers and Wyberton next season. While the additional teams will bring an extra competitiveness to the Lincs League - which prides itself on providing a mixture of experience and development with both their players and officials - there will also be the incentive of promotion for teams battling at the top. “Every club comes up to standard and everything’s been ground graded,” Lincs League chairman Julian Rinfret said of the 18 teams preparing to kick off.“It’s exciting. Step seven will become a county feeder league and we’re really waiting for the go-ahead. “The general consensus of opinion is that people are going to be going for it, playing football competitively, as there are clubs out there that want promotion. The Lincs League has no objection to clubs wanting promotion.” Once the line-up is officially ratified, the next step will be to work on a start date as football looks to return following the COVID-19 pandemic. A date is yet to be set, although different scenarios are in place to ensure the league can be completed. “There has been guidance put out by the FA, but there is no start date at present,” the chairman added. “When we are given the green light all things are in place ready to go. “When it goes, we don’t know. However, when it goes fixtures have been set to take into account timescales. “If, for example we can’t begin until November, we may decide one of the cups will have to go. If we start on September 1 then we should finish quite normally, subject to weather. “From the league’s perspective, it’s good to see the FA have been supporting clubs with grants to get their premises, pitches and COVID suituations in place so everybody should be able to turn up and play and watch football safely. “At the end of the day we all want to watch football safely.”