The folding of any football club is a sorry state of affairs, but seeing a local club with 116 years of history cease to exist carries particular disappointment.

That is exactly what has taken place at Sun Sports, with the Watford based club’s resignation from the Spartan South Midlands League (SSML) being reluctantly accepted earlier this week.

For Pat Fallon, who served as assistant manager to Sun boss Tim O’Sullivan, it is the loss of this history which he finds particularly tough to stomach.

“The biggest factor for me is the 100-odd year history Sun has. That to me is more important than any of us, the club is bigger than us,” he said.

“That history ending is what I find really upsetting. The club had great traditions and I know a lot of people who played for Sun from the 70s and 80s and it has been a fantastic club down the years.

“It is so frustrating that we are not able to develop the team further. It is just politics stopping that and it is a real shame we haven’t been able to come together and sort it out.”

The decision to fold comes in the wake of Sun losing the use of their pitch after a dispute with the club’s owners.

Plans had been put in place to ground share with Kings Langley, with the Gaywood Park club eager to come to the aid of their neighbours.

However, Kings’ existing commitments with Watford Ladies, who will play their home games at their stadium this season, meant the SSML could not accept the proposal.

With no pitch to call their home, Fallon says the pressure of keeping the club going became too great and continuing to operate was always going to be difficult.

“We were going to share with Kings but the Southern League didn’t accept that. When you don’t have a home, it becomes demoralising,” he said.

“Our way of coaching is to see what has gone wrong and put it right on the training pitch, and we couldn’t do that.

“When we were told we couldn’t ground share, and we really appreciate what Kings tried to do, it became a lot of stress.

“The group of players we had were magnificent and we never had an issue on the pitch. The problem has really come on the financial side of things.”

While the immediate future looks nothing other than cloudy for Sun, the intention remains to battle on and pursue routes to reforming.

The SSML have left the door open for the club to return, with a statement saying they hope to see Sun resolve their issues.

Last season saw Sun mount strong runs in local cup competitions and the FA Vase and Fallon says the players who spearheaded those efforts are faithful to the club.

He also feels the infrastructure is in place for the club to be a successful one, providing off-field issues can be resolved.

“I went to Sun when my son was a young boy and it is a sleeping giant really,” he said.

“They have fantastic facilities, it just needs to be organised right. On the football side we were fine.

“The players are really loyal to the club, and that took its toll on them.

“If they could revive it, I would definitely come back. Some of the players would come back tomorrow we know that and we have wished them well.”

Although Sun's first team has folded, the club still have Reserve and Under-18 teams playing their home games at Queens' School and London Colney FC respectively.