HOLLAND FC chairman Mark Sorrell says his club will dust themselves down and be doubly determined to gain promotion next season.

The side had hoped to go up from the Essex and Suffolk Border League to the Thurlow Nunn League but had their promotion appeal rejected by the FA.

This was because they have to ground-share with FC Clacton next season, due to building work at their Eastcliff ground.

The FA do not allow clubs to gain promotion if they start the ground-share within a season of going up.

However, they will be clear to make the step up the following campaign because they will have been co-habiting with the Seasiders for 12 months.

“We’ll dust ourselves down and carry on,” said Sorrell, who was granted a personal hearing in the main boardroom at Wembley Stadium on Friday morning.

“We had a fair hearing with a three-man board and I genuinely thought we’d done enough to convince them we would be ground-sharing out of necessity, rather than simply to gain promotion to step six football.

“They listened to me for around an hour and I felt confident.

“We’d done all we could do and the board had allowed me to show them some extra evidence, including a letter of support from the Thurlow Nunn League.

“Then we were called back in and told our appeal was unsuccessful. It was a shame but I was glad we did it. I have no regrets and it was a real experience.

“Now, without wanting to put too much pressure on the players, we have the chance to go and win promotion again next season.

“The ground-share issue won’t be a problem so there’s a big carrot for everyone at the club and we’ll certainly be applying for promotion again in December.”