Non-League Notebook: Scraborough seek administration as creditors close in

Scarborough are set to follow the example of their Nationwide Conference rivals Halifax Town by going into administration.

The North Yorkshire club have been suffering from varying degrees of financial strife ever since they were relegated from the Third Division in 1999. They nearly went out of business two years later as they struggled to maintain a full-time playing squad.

However, since Malcolm Reynolds took over as chairman in November 2001, Scarborough have had the benefit of a more settled off-field set-up. On the pitch, under the manager Russell Slade, they did well to stay in the Conference last term and are now pressing hard for a place in the end-of-season play-offs. But, like Halifax, Scarborough will be barred from the play-offs if they are in administration after 1 April.

Scarborough's debts include a sum of about £350,000 owed to the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. The Inland Revenue is due to issue a winding-up petition next week to recover £260,000, hence the timing of the club's application to go into voluntary administration, which will be heard in court in Leeds on Tuesday.

If the application is granted, the insolvency practitioners Poppleton and Appleby will run the club in the short term. Brendan Gilfoyle, a partner in the practitioners, told the Scarborough Evening News: "We are looking over the edge."

Reynolds, who hopes to arrange the sale of Scarborough's mortgaged McCain Stadium and move to a site on the edge of town, said in a club statement: "The administrators will not be looking for a new owner and will be working with me to find a way forward. This will not affect the players, but to relocate from our existing ground takes time and we need the breathing space to make sure that we continue to the end of the season."

The Conference has announced that its inaugural play-off final will be staged at Stoke City's Britannia Stadium on Saturday 10 May. "The game is bigger than the FA Trophy final, because there is a place in the Football League at stake," John Moules, the chief executive of the Conference, said. The four teams placed second to fifth in the final table will contest the play-offs to decide who joins the champions in the Third Division next season.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, the Conference clubs take a break from pursuing league points to take part in the third round of the Trophy. The holders Yeovil Town have an attractive tie at Hereford United. Woking entertain Chesham United, whose manager Colin Lippiatt they sacked last season. He was the No 2 to Geoff Chapple when the Surrey side won the Trophy three times in the 1990s.