DAVE Malone admitted Winchester City’s mid-June promotion to the Southern One South & West came as a “total and utter surprise.”

City’s director of football was in a pub on Friday night when he received a call from chairman Paul Murray saying the FA had been in touch to offer City the chance to replace Flackwell Heath at Step 4 of the pyramid.

The proviso was that they would have to attend the Southern League AGM at 11am on Saturday – some 140 miles away in Torquay!

Malone and Murray left at 5.30 the following morning to hotfoot it down to the English Riviera where City were duly voted back into the South & West after two years in theWessex ranks.

One of the conditions was that they paid off an historical fine accrued by the previous club regime for fielding an ineligible player away at Merthyr Town.

“Promotion was unexpected – although, saying that, nothing ever really surprises me in football!” said Malone.

“But we’re over the moon to be going up.”

Winchester thought their chance had deserted them when champions Petersfield Town were the only Sydenhams League club to be included in the provisional Southern League constitution last month.

But Clevedon Town’s subsequent relegation for ground grading reasons sparked a reshuffle which involved Hellenic League champions Flackwell Heath being switched from the Southern One Central to the Southern One South & West.

The increased travelling costs forced the Buckinghamshire outfit to turn down promotion whereupon Redhill, who finished second to bottom of the Ryman One South, were offered a reprieve. But they too balked at the logistics of the South & West, leaving Winchester next in the queue – just ahead of phoenix club Salisbury.

Malone said: “I think we deserve promotion after what we’ve achieved over the last two years, albeit that we finished runners-up. But there are a lot of leagues where finishing second and third gets you promoted.

“In a way going up takes makes life easier because we’d have been under pressure to win the Wessex League this season, but no one could have guaranteed it.

“Also, it gives us the opportunity to attract more people to the club and we’ve already had one new committee man agree to come on board since Saturday.”