DORCHESTER Town boss Leigh Robinson holds “mixed feelings” about surviving relegation only through the FA’s decision to void the BetVictor Southern Premier South.

In late March, the FA announced all leagues in Steps 3 to 7 would be terminated, with results expunged and promotion and relegation scrapped.

Following the directive, over 150 clubs have instructed lawyers to write to the FA, protesting the outcome. Many of those teams were set for promotion or in a play-off position.

And Robinson, whose side were 11 points off safety prior to the decision, admits his preference would have been to beat the drop “on the pitch”.

He told Echosport: “I guess it was mixed feelings. Of course, everyone’s pleased we’ve ended up staying up, naturally.

“It hasn’t happened in the way we wanted it to, we of course would’ve wanted to try and do it on the pitch, rather than in these unfortunate and unprecedented circumstances.

“For us, we have to look at it on the positive side and say that as a club, it gives us a chance to rebuild in this division, rather than go down and rebuild in what would be a tough division to get out of.

“A lot of people are looking at it and saying ‘if we go down, we should be able to come straight up’.

“It would never ever be that simple. It’s an added bonus for the people who run the club who’ve had such a difficult season from start to finish.

“It’s a huge relief for them to be able to rebuild in this division.”