AFC Fylde owner vows: We may be going down but we won't go away

As it stands, the Mill Farm outfit are waiting for clarification on whether or not the play-offs in National League North and South will go ahead next month.

If they do, Jim Bentley’s men would be demoted to NL North, having finished the campaign second-bottom after standings were decided by the same unweighted points-per-game system as League One.

The Coasters have already had to make a number of tough decisions over player contracts, with Mark Yeates, Danny Philliskirk, Luke Burke, James Craigen, Tom Miller and Dan Lavercombe all likely to depart when their deals end.

With no money coming into the club, it leaves the Coasters in a precarious financial position over the summer months.

Haythornthwaite told The Gazette: “You can’t do anything to prepare for next season.

“All you can do is batten down the hatches. It’s what all clubs are doing. All clubs are lucky at the moment because we’ve all got our staff and players furloughed, so the Government are paying the wages ... but from October 1 that all disappears.

“Nobody is offering contracts. We’ve got one of our players, a very good player, who wants to leave for various reasons.

“But as our chief executive told his agent, you can’t leave when there are no offers on the table.

“Nobody is going to put anyone on their wage bill because you can furlough your existing team, but if you take a new player on you can’t furlough him.

“We’ve got 11 players on contract, people like Nick Haughton who we decided to retain, and if we go down we’ve got a really, really strong squad to bounce back at the first attempt, which would be our aim.

“We won’t be disappearing or anything like that, like some people seem to be suggesting.”

Chorley look doomed to relegation after finishing bottom of the National League, while play-offs in the divisions below would also condemn Ebbsfleet United, who finished in the bottom three by a fraction of a point under PPG.

Chorley have indicated they could appeal, especially if it transpires they are the only club in the whole of non-league football to be relegated this summer.

Kent outfit Ebbsfleet released a strongly-worded statement in the wake of the National League vote, arguing their case to stay up and suggesting they might be forced into taking legal action.

It stated: “We have made representations to the National League board on behalf of our club and supporters and, like the National League Board, have taken advice and best practice support at every juncture to ensure due process and diligence.”

When Haythornthwaite was asked for his views on how the National League have dealt with this situation, the Fylde owner said: “I’ve got to be careful because I don’t want to sound like I’m a whiner and we’re making excuses – we get enough pelters without that.

“I think everyone knows what the National League has done and how it’s acted – let’s just leave it at that.”