FRUSTRATED Droitwich Spa joint-boss Mark Owen has urged the Football Association to be “a lot clearer” on how many clubs can gain promotion.

His call for clarity comes after Worcester Raiders and Darlaston Town appeared in the provisional West Midlands Regional League (WMRL) Premier Division line-up released by the FA.

Owen was left bemused by Sunday’s announcement as FA rules state only one club would go up from Division One.

Although third-placed Spa finished nine points adrift of the top two, Owen said his players’ mindset would have changed had they known a second promotion spot was up for grabs.

“All we want is for things to be a lot clearer moving forward because at the start of this season we were told one (promotion place),” Owen said.

“To finish third is a bit of a kick. There was a spell when Raiders went quite a distance in front of us. When there is only one place to play for it obviously does change your mindset but with our games in hand we could have gone level with Darlaston.

“If we had known it was two up it could have been a race between us and Darlaston for second.

“I am not saying we would have finished in the top two because there was still a nine-point difference.

“But we could have kept a mentality where we were going for second and potentially promotion. It is frustrating when you think two or three games could have made the difference.

“Hopefully every club will go into the new season knowing how many teams can get promoted.”

Other than the pre-planned exception of the South West Peninsula League, where mass movement up is being used to cut travel problems in a remote area of the country, WMRL One is the only division at its level to promote more than one club.

WMRL Premier is being reduced from 20 to 18 clubs due to four of the region’s teams getting shunted south to make up the numbers in the Hellenic League Division One West.

However, the FA is considering boosting the Hellenic League’s step six divisions to 16 clubs, potentially creating an opportunity for Spa who applied for promotion to go up and have the ground grading.

Owen added: “We are planning as if we are in this league. If anything changes then it changes.”