STRANRAER FC say they cannot afford to take legal action after they were relegated from the third tier of Scottish football on what is their 150th anniverary as a club.

The Blues fell into League Two after only 16 of the 42 clubs in Scotland showed support for a league reconstruction.

The SPFL held a vote on Monday morning to see whether there was enough interest in altering format of having 14 teams in the top flight and 10 in the Championship, League One and League Two for next season.

A statement from the board said they had "agreed to draw a line under reconstruction talks", meaning clubs like Stranraer, Hearts and Thistle are now all relegated.

The team sat at the foot of the League One table in March when the coronavirus crisis put a halt to the 2019/20 campaign.

While Hearts FC have indicated they will fight their position in the courts Stranraer FC chairman Iain Dougan said his club can't take legal action against the SPFL due to the costs involved.

Stranraer FC, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary,  has a part-time squad, and currently have no players under contract and o not know when the League Two season will begin.

Mr Dougan said: "We are small fry. We are one of the older clubs, going into our 150th year this year, but in financial terms we are one of the smaller clubs and [legal action] is not a route we can afford to take in any shape or form.

"Financially it is a huge hit for Hearts as well, so I fully understand their position and going down the legal route. Whether it is successful remains to be seen.

"I am not so worried about the future, because we haven't got any players, that is the main financial cost."

He told Sky: "We really really want to get back to playing football in some shape or form very soon."

And he raised questions about any testing regime.

"We only get the players on a Tuesday and Thursday night for training, after that they go back to their normal workplace on a Friday morning, so it negates any meaningful purpose of testing in the first place," he said.

The Herald: Neil Doncaster feels reconstruction has a chance

Announcing the relegation decision, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: "In recent weeks, we've been consulting closely with our clubs regarding possible reconstruction and, based on the feedback we received, the board decided to ask all 42 clubs to give their views so that we could have absolute clarity, which we've achieved today.

"Whilst a number of clubs were in favour of a new divisional set-up, the support for it was insufficient and we will now move forward with a fixture programme for season 2020-21 based on the current 12-10-10-10 structure.

"Due to the restrictions forced upon us by the coronavirus outbreak, the Championship clubs also voted overwhelmingly to play each other three times next season, rather than four, which enables a later start to the Championship league season.

"Now that we have a confirmed structure for next season, the SPFL's fixturing team will begin work on the Premiership fixture list, which will start on the weekend of 1 August, and the Championship fixture list, which will start on the weekend of 17 October."