AMID problems raising enough players to field a side, Newport Football Club have withdrawn both its teams from the Harwoods Isle of Wight Saturday leagues.

Newport Reserves, who were rock bottom of Division 1, pulled out having struggled to raise teams for its fixtures so far this season.

Newport A also withdrew from Combination 2, the lowest tier on the Island.

The withdrawals were announced on the club website this luncthtime.

The statement reads: "Sadly, I have to inform you our reserve team has withdrawn from the Island League Division 1.

"A series of events led players to leave for other clubs.

"We also withdrew our A team from the combination league in an effort to keep the reserves going.

"However, this has proved unsuccessful and we were unable to field a side last Saturday.

"We shall use the next few months to get a more stable set up in place that will allow our junior teams participate successfully next season in whichever league we enter."

Club official, Pete Westhorpe, added that the changes would not have a knock-on effect on the first team's ability to field a strong side each week.

"I think the move will help the first team as there are a lot of reserves already being used in the first team set-up this season," said Mr Westhorpe.

"We would have loved to have kept three teams going, but a lot of players left — a combination of those moving to other clubs and work and college commitments.

"I don't see that having an adverse affect on the first team.

"We have had a lot of injuries as well, but we have enough players signed up with us to cover all eventualities."

Newport play Ringwood Town at St George's Park on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

With it being National Non-League Day on Saturday, Port will be using the opportunity to raise awareness of grass roots football and raise money for Prostate Cancer UK, who say a man dies of the disease in the UK every 45 minutes.