St Leonards officials have confirmed the club has resigned from the Dr Martens League and will play County League football next season.

The decision was made before Christmas by directors Graham Kenward and Danny Bossom and notice was given to the Dr Martens League before the January 1 deadline.

It ends weeks of speculation about the future of the cash-strapped club which has been suffering from financial difficulties since September.

The problems have caused two managers and a number of contractual players to leave and poor results on the field have left Saints bottom of the eastern division with only three wins recorded this season.

Share-holder and former manager Andy Thomson admitted the decision was made because the running costs of the club had proved 'very expensive' and left the directors with 'virtually no choice' but to resign from the league.

He said: "The club handed in its resignation to Dennis Strudwick of the Dr Martens League before Christmas and we have been assured that we will be accepted into the Sussex County League next season.

"It is a decision I totally agree with and the club had virtually no choice but to go down and give itself some breathing space. This year has been very expensive and we feel that a couple of years in the County League is the only way this club can survive.

"It got so bad that we held a meeting three weeks ago and I asked everyone there whether they wanted to fight to save the club or just stop it completely and everyone agreed to carry on.

"This is not something the club wanted to do but it is very hard to keep going when you only get 150 supporters coming to watch you and the team are down the bottom of the league.

"We do not see this as a long term thing, we want to go down and win the County League and come back up again in a much stronger position than we are now."