Wrexham hit with 10-point penalty

Wrexham yesterday became the first Football League club to incur a ten-point penalty for entering administration, but insisted it was the League One club's best course of action.

Wrexham, who are £2.6m in debt, avoided Wednesday's deadline for an Inland Revenue winding-up order through the manoeuvre but it dropped them into the relegation zone. The club have seven days to appeal but are not expected to.

The club's owner Alex Hamilton, who is believed to want to redevelop the Racecourse Ground for housing, has rejected a series of takeover bids from former chairman Mark Guterman. A late bid from an unnamed source failed to materialise on Thursday but Steve Williams, from administrators Begbies Traynor, said it may be revived.

A director, Dave Griffiths, said: "It's a sad day going into administration after 132 years of history but there could be light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully someone will come in and buy. When we look back in a few years time this could be the best thing that happened."

Wrexham, who earned £60,000 when last night's FA Cup tie at Scunthorpe was televised by Sky TV, may now lose players at cut-price fees. Their manager, Denis Smith, said yesterday: "It's very difficult on the players and the fans to have this done to them through no fault of their own.

"We had a good chance of the play-offs, now we've got another challenge - getting away from relegation."

The Football League brought in the ten-point rule after complaints from clubs angered by Leicester City enjoying a successful promotion campaign after going into administration.