Success can wait! VALE’S SHANAHAN VOTED TO END LG2 SEASON FOR “GREATER GOOD”
PORT VALE’S Carol Shanahan says she acted in “the greater good” by voting to end the League Two season – despite her side being one point and one place adrift of the play-offs.
The English Football League confirmed on Friday that fourth-tier outfits had “unanimously indicated a preferred direction of travel to curtail the campaign”.
They also agreed a framework to decide the standings. The final League Two table could therefore be decided on an unweighted points-per-game system and Port Vale would finish eighth, outside the play-offs.
But club chair and co-owner Shanahan thinks voting through the proposal was the right call – even though it wasn’t easy.
She said: “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Then I had to do the awful thing of ringing the manager to tell him. It was for the greater good. I think it was the right thing to do.
“I felt I really wanted to finish the season. We’re eighth in the table and have every chance of getting into the play-offs.
“But I felt that the unity of League Two and the unity of the club we belong to, the needs of that was more important than the hurt Port Vale would feel.”
While League One clubs failed to reach an agreement, the unanimous decision made by the League Two outfits will now be considered by the
EFL board on Wednesday. Clubs agreed the top three should be automatically promoted and that the next four should play off for one remaining promotion place.
Crucially, though, they asked the EFL for there to be no relegation.
That would mean only National League leaders Barrow come up due to Bury’s demise last summer.
Harrogate managing director Garry Plant said: “We are in second place and we qualify for promotion. We have to wait and see what the EFL’s final decision is and we go from there.”
Plant has the support of Forest Green chairman Dale Vince, who said: “If you’re going to apply a rule to freeze the league where it is, you’ve got to do it top and bottom. It’s all kinds of wrong on the National League.”
While League One clubs have decided on “a further period of reflection and consultation”, Accrington owner Andy Holt says he would favour promotion without relegation. But he thinks an extra one club should then be relegated every season until the third tier is back to its regular allotment of 24 clubs.
Holt tweeted: “EFL clubs can fit more games in and it would mean more short-term match-day revenue as football returns.”