RELEGATED Tividale will discover next week if Phil Male will continue as the club’s manager.

Dale’s 3-1 defeat at Leek Town last Saturday confirmed the club’s drop from the Northern Premier League Division One South.

However, club officials are keen to retain the services of Male next term after he spent the second half of the season guiding the club after joint-boss Ross Thorpe stepped down.

Male will now meet with committee members to discuss the future as soon as the current campaign comes to end with Saturday’s home clash with Sheffield.

Club secretary Leon Murray said: “We will know what is happening once we meet with Phil next week. Everything will be sorted out once the season comes to an end.

“We need to know what he will do before we start thinking of other things on the playing side of things.

“The fact it has taken until one week before the end of the season to confirm our relegation shows you just how well Phil and the players have done since he took over.

“We always knew it was going to be a difficult season but I think we have done well under the circumstances and can hopefully be stronger for the experience.

“When we meet with Phil we will also discuss next season’s budget at the same time.

“There are things we want to do so that we are in a better position financially. We had to cut our budget last season because we would have stretched ourselves too much and had to do the right thing by the football club.

“If we do bounce back we want to make sure we are better equipped to deal with it. We would already be in a better position with the ground grading and we have some good young players coming through, but there are a few other things we could do to boost finances as well.”

A strike from young substitute Shaquille Leachman-Whittingham wasn’t enough for Tivi to take something from their clash at Leek.

They were due to travel to Shaw Lane Aquaforce on Tuesday night before hosting Sheffield at The Beeches on Saturday (3pm ko).

Murray confirmed that the club has heard nothing from the league about a slim chance of relegation reprieve.

There could be a chance Tivi can stay up if other clubs fail ground grading inspections or are forced to fold — a fate that has already befallen second-from-bottom Daventry Town.

Murray said: “A few people have asked if there might be a chance of staying up due to others dropping out, but we haven’t heard anything from the league.

“We are planning for life in the Midland Football League now and no-one has said anything different to that.”

Meanwhile, former Tivi youth keeper Niall Maher was called into Morecambe’s first-team squad for Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Accrington.