OF ALL the years to fall through the relegation trapdoor, this was the worst season to do it.

Ahead of a major restructuring of the domestic game in 2015, Cougars were desperate to avoid a bottom-five finish and subsequent drop out of the Championship.

But in the cruellest manner imaginable, they did go down after a dramatic final-day home defeat at the hands of Featherstone.

Ben Blackmore's late try for Rovers saw Paul March's men relegated by just one point after both Whitehaven and Batley won to clinch safety.

Player-coach March was reduced to tears at the final whistle, which said much for the significance of the result.

Shortly after the game he said: "If it hadn't been for the restructure, we would have actually improved on last year. But we knew the ball game when we set out.

"There were some tears shed between me and the players. It's the first time I've been involved in relegation in my career and I certainly don't want to experience anything like it ever again."

A sense of injustice has prevailed at Cougar Park ever since after Batley stayed up at Cougars' expense.

The Bulldogs and Doncaster were both reinstated the three points they were initially deducted for fielding ineligible dual registration players in July.

Cougars chairman Gary Fawcett believes there is a very strong case to declare the appeal panel's decision null and void and reinstate the punishment – under the Rugby Football League's own operational rules.

He is considering legal action against the RFL alongside Sheffield, with Cougars in talks with solicitor Richard Cramer after he advised the club almost 20 years ago when they were denied entry to Super League.

Unless Cougars can successfully challenge their relegation legally – or, indeed, somehow persuade the RFL to make the Championship a 13-team division in 2015 – then the ramifications of going down could reverberate for years.

As things stand, Fawcett estimates being in Championship One will cost the club over £250,000 next season.

A much-anticipated local derby with Bradford Bulls, which guaranteed a huge crowd and bumper pay-day for Cougars, will now not happen.

Nor will there be any visit from teams such as Halifax, Featherstone and Leigh. Instead, Cougars will be facing the likes of Hemel Stags, Oxford and London Skolars.

Thus Cougars' gates will suffer badly, while their travel costs will also significantly increase as they head to the various outposts that comprise the third tier.

As March admitted in the aftermath of the Featherstone game, his side knew the task they faced when the season began.

But at times during the season it felt as though everything was conspiring against the club – and their player-coach in particular.

He was given a controversial two-month stadium ban by the RFL after being found guilty of improper conduct and breaching the game's respect policy following comments he made to the match referee after the defeat by Leigh on March 9.

March was serving a four-match playing ban at the time of the offence.

But after surviving relegation on the final day of the 2013 campaign, Cougars found greater consistency in 2014.

March got in the players he wanted and his side won two of their opening three fixtures before embarking on an impressive Challenge Cup campaign that took them to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1997.

They overcame Wath Brow Hornets, Barrow and Swinton before being heavily beaten at Widnes in the first of the four last-eight ties.

March, who watched the game at a local pub in Widnes as he served his stadium ban, rested a number of players ahead of a rearranged league game at Whitehaven five days later.

Cougars used the adversity of March's ban as fuel to fire their bid for safety and they looked more than capable of staying out of trouble.

They won five games on the bounce midway through the season but then lost four in succession.

Heading into the business end of the campaign, Cougars won three games on the trot but then lost in disastrous fashion at home to North Wales Crusaders.

That was followed by two more defeats at the hands of Dewsbury and Featherstone which condemned them to the drop, prompting threats of legal action from Fawcett.

A number of players, such as Sean Hesketh and Josh Lynam, are to depart, while long-serving prop Andy Shickell will now retire.

But club captain James Feather has signed a new two-year deal, while March, Paul White, Paul Handforth and Danny Jones, Scott Law, Jode Sheriffe and Neil Cherryholme have all agreed deals to stay with the club next year.

With those kind of players on board, Cougars should be clear favourites to come straight back up – but there is no denying the club will suffer financially next year.