ONCE, Autumn was a golden time when it was just leaves that fell, now sports clubs seem to be the ones dropping to their knees.

Each week brings fresh news of teams being hit hard by the financial crisis but this one seems particularly bad.

First, Chester City dodged a bullet when the Football Conference extended the deadline to pay back the money they owed to Wrexham and Vauxhall Motors to the middle of November.

In League One, Southend look set to lurch into administration because of a tax bill, while Weymouth are also about to suffer the same fate.

It's not just football clubs or sides from the lower divisions suffering financial nightmares. Portsmouth, who have already been passed around by Middle Eastern businessmen like a mouldy hot potato, have been banned from signing players because of the £3 million they owe and auditors have warned that Hull City are in danger of going out business unless they cut their debts.

In rugby, Birmingham and Solihull have crumbled into voluntary liquidation and had 15 points docked in the newly formed Championship.

Locally, Worcester City are still a million miles away from sorting out a new ground after auditors KPMG described St Modwen's plans for a stadium 'wholly unacceptable'.

I have a romantic notion that at times of gloom and doom, sport is a way of escaping the crushing reality of it all, but at the minute the weight of a myriad financial problems are destroying club sport at a lower level.

Of course, many of these clubs have been the architects of their own downfall but that does little to soothe the fans left dispirited and cynical by this Autumn slaughter.

The question is not when will this end, but is this the tip of the iceberg? What financial horrors await under the surface of club accounts up and down the country? We will have to wait and see.