NON-LEAGUE side Norton United have no alternative but to stop playing at the end of the season due to not being able to afford the rent on their stadium, the club said yesterday.

Norton reached the first round proper of the FA Cup this season, eventually going down 4-0 to Gateshead, but are unable to pay £20,000 a season on their ground in Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent.

The club were founded in 1989 and currently play in the Northern Premier League First Division South, the eighth tier of English football.

Norton played at the Norton Cricket Club and Miners Welfare Institute but left in December after falling out with the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation which owns the ground.

The club said in a statement: "It is with great regret to announce that Norton United Football Club has made a difficult decision to resign from the Northern Premier League at the end of the 2014/15 season."

"The club will not be seeking a position in any lower league within the FA national leagues structure for any of its teams.

"After getting Norton United to the Northern Premier League Standard and reaching the FA Cup first round proper this season, it is unfortunate that what has happened at the Community Drive ground the club feels they no longer can carry on.

"The club were asked by the trustees of the welfare to pay a rent of £650 for each home game, this year we played 30 home games, and for next season that would equate to approximately £20,000. The club found this extortionate and unsustainable if current standards were to be maintained.

"The club without their own ground can no longer rely on local sponsors, who have been very kind over the years. In addition the local support from the community has been fantastic.

"Norton United Football Club will now lost generations of youngsters, nine teams including a girls' team plus the under-21s together with the three adult teams.

Manager Scott Dundas said: "It's a very sad day for the club, for what Steve Beaumont has built over the last 25 years and more specifically over the last four years."

by Kadeem Simmonds