CHAIRMAN Mike Collyer has defended Poole Borough's record during his tenure – despite the club’s relegation over disciplinary issues.

The Turlin Moor-based outfit became the second club in successive campaigns to be kicked out of the Dorset Premier League (DPL) following the loss of its FA Charter Standard status.

Borough fell foul of stringent DPL rules which strips the status of clubs exceeding 80 disciplinary points or six misconduct charges in a season.

Teams are sanctioned with one point for yellow cards and between two and four for red cards with points awarded at the Dorset County FA’s (DCFA) discretion for misconduct.

It follows Holt United’s expulsion last season after they had racked up 109 points, which included getting slapped with six misconduct charges for an incident during a home fixture with Hamworthy Rec on April 9, 2014.

At Borough, Collyer, who took the chair in September last year, vowed to uphold the standards achieved during the second half of last season and promised a new constitution for behaviour. 

Collyer told the Daily Echo: “I’m not too chuffed to be the first chairman to oversee relegation and to lose the Charter Standard but when I took it on, the club had already amassed 67 points.

“We did alleviate the situation and addressed the players before the start of matches and at half-time to stress the importance of discipline. In the end, we only went nine over.

“To only accrue 22 points in 15 games was really good but we have to keep pushing to set the best standard we can. Our name stinks but I want us to win awards for the least bookings and charges next season.

“I don’t think clubs should be relegated for discipline. You go further up the pyramid and teams don’t face these sanctions. Eighty points is not hard to get – if you average two bookings per game, that’s 52 straight away.

“It has cost us but there is nothing I can do about it. We have to take it on the chin and all we can do is try and put together a team to get back to the DPL.”

Borough can re-apply for the status after 12 months and would be allowed one year to achieve it in full should they gain promotion back to the DPL. 

DCFA discipline co-ordinator Jon Fancy added: “It would be fair to say Poole Borough’s discipline improved towards the end of last season but unfortunately, it was too late to prevent what happened.”