Revealed! The reason why Non-League Bedford Town's players went on strike - 15 minutes before kick-off!

The reason behind a strike staged by angry players of Non-League Bedford Town minutes before kick-off can be revealed – they wanted their chairman to resign!

The squad’s decision to refuse to play their Southern League East match with Fleet Town on Saturday was triggered when the owner went back on his pledge to sell up, we can confirm.

The players had been told that long-serving David Howell would be leaving after receiving an offer for the buy the club.

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But after turning up to find him still in charge, the players staged a protest by leaving the ground minutes before they were due to kick-off.

The episode hit the national headlines and angry Fleet demanded punishment for the Eagles after discovering they had a wasted four-hour round trip.

Southern League chairman Terry Barrett said: “It wasn’t due to the players not being paid, it was something else.

“It seems the players don’t want David (Howell) at the club for whatever reason any more and it seems to have all come to a head.

“It’s a great shame what’s happened there, David has been at the club for 17 years – he’s really kept them going and without him there probably wouldn’t be a club. I don’t know how it came to this.

“What I’m lead to believe is that Bedford pay their players their full fee if they’re in the starting XI, and if they’re a sub they get half of that. There was even an offer made to them to play the game on Saturday and last night with everyone getting the full fee. Clearly it was knocked back and they all left the ground.”

Some of Bedford’s players returned to the pitch last night and ended their strike, but couldn’t prevent a 1-0 defeat to local rivals AFC Dunstable.

Howell refused to add fuel to the fire and said fans should “ask the players and not me” why they didn’t pull on their boots against Fleet Town.

“I’ve think it’s totally unreasonable,” he said. “It is subject to a league investigation so I can’t comment any further.

“I don’t know why the players walked out – the people everyone needs to ask are them.”

Ticked off Fleet, who want to be reimbursed for their wasted 160-mile journey, came down on the side of the under-fire chairman.

The club said on their website: “It will remain to be seen if any of the players want to return to Bedford Town, but the right thing would be that no other club will take the ringleaders of this mutiny on and they never play football again anywhere.”

The Southern League’s investigation continues.