Decision to be made on Alcester Town's abandoned county cup tie next week

ALCESTER Town will learn next week if their abandoned Birmingham County FA Saturday Vase tie against Sutton Rangers has to be replayed or not.

The county’s governing body confirmed to the Herald this week that a hearing will take place on Monday, 7th February, where a decision on “if the game gets replayed or if a team gets thrown out” will be made.

The third-round tie was played on 7th January and it was the second attempt to get the fixture fulfilled at the Stratford Road Ground after the first meeting was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

However, the referee abandoned the match after around 20 minutes with the Romans leading 2-0 and Sutton down to eight men (one sent off and two in the sin bin).

Romans boss Aaron Blackwood described the events to the Herald as “a complete farce from start to finish” and admitted he would be “furious” if the fixture was ordered to be fulfilled for a third time. He added: “I just hope common sense prevails.”

Sutton manager Paul Sullivan said in a report to the county FA that ‘the official had lost all control of the game’ and that he was ‘incapable of protecting the players’.

On the referee, Blackwood said: “Sometimes it’s easy to blame the referee but I could not see anything more he could have done.”