Football writer Terry Daley has reported on Cwmbran Town for the South Wales Argus for the past 15 seasons and here looks at what relegation from the Welsh Premier League could mean for the club.

IT'S all over. The club which won the inaugural title, finished once as runner-up, appeared in five European campaigns, played in three Welsh Cup finals and produced Wales star Danny Gabbidon lost its Welsh Premier League status - ironically, on the very ground where it lifted that first championship trophy.

That was at Stebonheath Park at the end of the 1992-93 season. Now, 14 years later, the cash-strapped Crows must now regroup in the Welsh League Division One.

However, if club officials don't already know, the WL is no place to regroup, no place to plan to take the club forward, certainly no place to take a breather.

It's all a far cry from the Crows' glory days. They first hit the big-time in August 1993 when they beat Irish title-holders Cork City 3-2 in a European Champions Cup game at Cwmbran Stadium, in front of 3,582 fans, although their opponents went through on the away-goal rule.

The venue was packed out with 8,500 spectators when the Crows lost a memorial game 3-1 against a Manchester United side including Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane, and they appeared in front of 47,500 at Parkhead against Glasgow Celtic in August 1999, before their last European game was a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of crack Israeli outfit Maccabi Haifai in August 2003.

Unless you've got the financial clout to assemble a top-class playing squad, relegation from the top flight can be a painful experience.

Just ask Barry Town, who are on the verge of going straight down to Division Two. Just ask Afan Lido, who have failed by some distance to claim first-time promotion.

The Crows recently revealed they are to ask the local council to lower, and by a considerable amount, the rent to play at Cwmbran Stadium.

If that fails, it's difficult to see where the club will get the money from. They've held amateur status for some time, and with no backers wanting to help out while the club has been appearing in the highest possible domestic league, it's also difficult to imagine who will want to come to their aid now that they've dropped a level.

There's doubt, too, about the intention of all of the current playing squad. They've done remarkably well to stick with it while not being paid.

However, they may now want to return to their previous clubs, and with the one-player-one-club rule coming in next season, the Crows may well find themselves with a recruitment problem.

What also has to be considered is that rivals Croesyceiliog and Cwmbran Celtic appear to be far better off - both on and off the playing-field.

The coming months are crucial to the Crows, and unless the right decisions are made, they could well find out what it feels like to jump out of a plane minus a parachute.