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Non-league team win title after finishing third

AFC Whyteleafe pose for a team photo before the FA Vase final at Wembley against Whitstable Town Getty Images

AFC Whyteleafe reached the FA Vase final at Wembley before winning the Combined Counties Premier South title

Chris Peddy
BBC Sport, London and South East

Two teams locked level on points at the top of the league, separated only by goal difference at the end of a 38-game season - yet the title is won by a side one point below them.

That is the story in the Combined Counties Premier South, where Jersey Bulls and Redhill have been docked three points each for both fielding an ineligible player and the title has instead gone to Surrey side AFC Whyteleafe.

It caps an amazing season for the club, who were only formed four years ago but reached the FA Vase final earlier this month, where they were beaten 2-1 by Whitstable Town at Wembley.

Jersey finished top with 96 points but were docked three points for fielding a player who should have been suspended in their 4-0 win over Tooting and Mitcham United on 20 March.

Second-placed Redhill were then set for the title having finished below the Channel Islands side on goal difference but have now also been deducted three points for the same offence.

Daniel Bennett does a backflip celebration after scoring for AFC Whyteleafe at Wembley Getty Images

Daniel Bennett scored for Whyteleafe in their 2-1 defeat to Whitstable Town in the FA Vase final at Wembley

It means the trophy has been handed Whyteleafe, who would have finished third with 95 points, and the club have been awarded automatic promotion to the eighth-tier Isthmian League Division One South East.

Meanwhile, Jersey will take on Fleet Town and Redhill will face Cobham in the play-offs.

"I feel great that we've been crowned champions and been promoted to Step Four, but at the same time it's a very strange way to go about it," Whyteleafe boss Kelly Waters told BBC Radio Surrey.

"I feel quite sorry for Jersey and Redhill in the situation that they've had, I've experienced it myself before when I was managing at Balham and it's painful.

"But they have to enforce the rules to make sure people don't use them inappropriately and in the end we've been a beneficiary of that and we couldn't be happier to be back in Step Four."

The original Whyteleafe FC folded in 2021 and the current version of the club was formed shortly after by chairman and co-manager Waters.

'Leafe entered the Surrey South Eastern Combination League in 2021-22. The club are now back at the same level Whyteleafe FC had been at at the time it folded.

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