PAUL Hilton believes a radical geographical shake-up of Radcliffe FC's league will benefit clubs in the area.

The Northern Premier League has voted to change from putting clubs on both sides of the Pennines in the same league.

From next season there will be one league in the north west of the country and another covering the north east and Yorkshire.

The east/west split means Radcliffe will no longer travel to play in Yorkshire or the North East.

Instead, all their games in the Evo-Stik League will be against teams in the west, predominantly around the Greater Manchester area.

Radcliffe chairman Hilton believes it is the right decision, claiming it will cut down significantly on travelling time for clubs.

He said: "I think it will make a difference.

"It comes down to travel. At the moment about 40 per cent of our away games are across the Pennines.

"Our longest trips are to Goole, Tadcaster, Scarborough and South Shields and it's always made more sense that teams should travel north and south rather than east and west.

"It's not always easy going across the Pennines and the nearest team we play over in the east is Brighouse, so there's a 30-mile gap of nothing.

"The other key factor is that when people look at the geography of clubs in the league they'll see there is a lack of North East teams.

"That's because they have always been able to choose whether to be promoted or not.

"That's pushed the league's boundaries to the south and this change may encourage northeasterly teams to decide to join the league.

"It makes sense. They have said they will review it and come back after a year and see if it is working.

"So it is not set in stone.

"Even in the worst case scenario you are going to visit new teams."

But Hilton thinks once the new structure is in place people will not want to change back.

"They showed us a map of where all the teams in all the leagues at our level are located and as soon as you saw it it was obvious this was the logical thing to do," he said.

"Apart from four teams to the south of Greater Manchester and one to the north all the teams we will be playing were in an area around Greater Manchester.

"The furthest team to the south for us is Market Drayton Town."