LYE Town’s season is in disarray after it emerged they will miss out on promotion – even if they finish top of the league.

The Stourbridge Road side currently sit second in the table, four points behind leaders Alvechurch with two games in hand, but to be in with a chance of getting out of the Midlands Football League Premier Division, teams have to apply to the FA by the end of November.

But on Monday (December 13), the FA released a list of teams which have applied for promotion – with Lye’s name not included.

Co-manager Martin Thomas said the players and managerial staff were only made aware of the situation earlier this week, adding: “I would love to have my say on this, but I can’t.”

The News has approached club chairman Brian Blakemore for comment but he is yet to respond.

The news comes days after Lye came up short in 2-2 draw with Westfields – who have applied for promotion – on Saturday.

After going 2-0 up, Town were pegged back with two late goals from the Herefordshire side, but Thomas has hit back at Westfields’ manger Sean Edwards following post-match comments that appeared in the Hereford Times.

Thomas said: “Their goals came in the 91st and 97th minute. Where the ref got the seven minutes from I do not know.

“He [Edwards] was also downright disrespectful in his comments after the game, not just about us, but about Alvechurch too.

“You don’t talk about other teams in a derogatory way he did. Some of the things he said, like we celebrated like we won the league after we scored our second, were ridiculous."

“And why is he bringing Alvechurch into an interview after a Lye-Westfields game? All I can put it down to is inexperience, but he needs to learn that it’s not done like that at our level.

“But not picking up all three points was our own fault. We controlled the game and should have been 3-0 up at half time and 5-0 by the end of the game, but we didn’t take our chances and they came back to bite us.

“Would we have taken 2-2 before the game? Yes, but not as the game went on. We’re really disappointed, but we’re a young team and we’ll learn from it and come back stronger.”

Click here to read Westfields manger Sean Edwards’ post-match comments.

Lye’s next league match on Saturday (3pm) will see them host AFC Wulfrunians, with Thomas preparing his team for a tight contest.

He said: “They’re always close games with AFC. You can’t look at the league positions because they’re false.

“There’s a lot of quality in that side and a lot of guys that we know very well. They’re going to make it very tough for us, but we know what to expect and it should make for a very decent game.”