Wrexham AFC apologise to Harrogate Town after abandoning appeal against EFL's Luke Armstong transfer decision

Following a month of speculation regarding his future, the Sulphurites agreed to sell last season’s leading goal-scorer to their League Two rivals on transfer deadline day, announcing at 11.15pm that the 27-year-old had left the club for an undisclosed fee.

But it subsequently transpired that Wrexham had failed to submit the required paperwork ahead of Friday night’s cut-off, with the EFL confirming the following day that the transfer had not been completed and thus Armstrong would remain a Harrogate player.

The Red Dragons then began putting together an appeal, with Town boss Simon Weaver telling the Harrogate Advertiser directly after Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Barrow that he remained hopeful that the “situation” could be “resolved” so that “everyone can win from it.”

But Tuesday saw Wrexham announce that they have “no reasonable chance” of successfully overturning the EFL’s ruling on Armstrong before going on to apologise to both the player and Harrogate.

A statement explained: ‘Having reviewed the additional information received from the EFL and considered this in the context of the submission of the documents for the transfer of Luke Armstrong from Harrogate Town, the club have determined there is no reasonable chance of success if we were to appeal the EFL’s decision to reject the transfer.

‘Now this decision has been made, we wish to apologise to Luke as we were unable to complete the transfer by the deadline and Harrogate Town, who we are sure will be as disappointed as we are that the transfer will not now be completed in this window.

‘The club will be reviewing the circumstances and processes that have led to this outcome with all the relevant parties.’

League Two clubs have until Tuesday to submit finalised 22-man squad lists containing the players they wish to use until the winter transfer window opens in January.

But it remains to be seen whether Armstrong will be included in that number now that it has been confirmed that his move to Wrexham is definitely off for the time being.

Asked by the Harrogate Advertiser if the former Middlesbrough forward will play for the Town again should the Red Dragons’ appeal fail, Weaver said on Saturday: “I think it is far too early and too raw to be discussing it right now, to be honest.”