Stevenage FC are once again a Football League club after retaining their status in the fourth tier of the English professional game.

On a dramatic day of administrative drama Macclesfield Town were relegated to the National League after the English Football League (EFL) won an appeal against a points deduction.

The decision means a reprieve for Boro, who will now retain their League Two status.

Macclesfield had been handed a suspended four-point sanction for not paying wages - but that will now be applied immediately, dropping the Silkmen to the bottom of the table, one place below the Lamex outfit.

The EFL said an independent panel's decision was 'final and binding'.

Earlier this summer the Cheshire-based side had appeared to have escaped the drop, after Covid ended the League Two season early - when they were deducted two points, with four suspended, for breaches of regulations relating to non-payment of wages.

The move meant they were one point above Stevenage in the League Two table - but Tuesday's successful EFL appeal now means they finish the tortuous 2019-20 season a full three points below their rivals - having been deducted 17 points in total over the course of the campaign, across three disciplinary cases.

Boro chairman Phil Wallace - who has always been firm in his stance that Boro did not deserve to go down on the criteria applied and the Silkmen's consistent failure to pay player and staff wages at Moss Rose - was visibly delighted at the crucial ruling.

Boro's delighted supremo told Sky Sports News on Wednesday morning about the move to reinstate this club: "We've had all sorts of messages from club's and players and club owners.

"There was a real desire among football club's to see sanctions imposed properly - so that they are a deterrent. And that was what this was all about.

"That's why the EFL appealed in the first place. There is a lesson to be learned that if you bring things in earlier then you won't get these type of situations happening again."

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