Ross Town Football Club no longer has a first team - it has been unable to put out eleven players for the last three games.

Club Chairman, Geoff Jones said:?"It is terribly sad that a town the size of Ross cannot support a senior football team. It is doubly sad that the proposed merging of RTFC with Ross Juniors to form a brand new single powerful club taking in all ages from six up to senior level, cannot now take place." He said the Club's committee made the decision at its meeting on November 11th.

Geoff has received a letter of commiseration from former England manager, Graham Taylor, (see page 9) who was a star guest at one of the Club's end of year dinners. Graham Taylor said:?"All the money in professional football has produced a celebrity status and if you are not at that level you are just 'dropped'. The heart is being taken out of the local clubs, and as you have found, it has become impossible to continue."

The Mayor of Ross, Councillor John Edwards also said it was a great shame and Ross should have its own team. He added that arrangements are being made for younger teams to use the pitch at the Sports Centre.

Ross Town Football Club began in the summer of 1993, an amalgamation of Ross United and Woodville. In the Herefordshire League, Ross Town did exceptionally well winning the League title in 1994/95, winning 20 and drawing 3 of their 24 matches, scoring 91 goals and conceding only 14, in the process. The Club joined the Hellenic League at the start of the 1996/97 season and finished ninth, with a positive goal difference, and more wins than defeats.

Geoff Jones said: "It has been a struggle to keep the Club going over the last two and a half years, but the committee was determined to play its part within the Ross Sports Federation and help bring long needed improved sporting facilities to Ross. However, the lack of sponsorship, it costs around £6,000 to run the Club for a season, and the inability to attract or keep players, forced the committee's hand. The Club's second team was disbanded at the end of last season and it was hoped that just one team could survive, but it was not to be.

"The Club is grateful for those individuals and companies who have contributed financially or have in some other way helped over the years. It is now hoped that the Town of Ross will, sometime soon, see another senior side emerge and provide the Ross Juniors with the final part of their set-up and create one coherent and forceful football club in Ross."