Ortonians

[charlie]

Good Luck to Ortonians tomorrow night ,lets hope the league come to there senses.

[Ross]

Nearly forgot about that, hope all goes to plan. Does anyone know what time the hearing starts??

[Tommy Trophy]

It started at 7.45 - it finished at 8.45pm - as we suspected appeal lost I am afraid - good luck to the rest of the sides in the competition and sorry to all of my players for my cock up - as you can imagine gutted

[Big G]

Thats a joke Tommy. Sorry to you and your players

[Ross]

That officially sucks, dunno what else to say really :soo:

[lozzaman]

A nasty way to lose the cup!!!

[talent scout]

Unlucky to ortonians pitty there unable to defend the cup but on the plus side does that mean that the players are no longer cup tied as some might reconsider there choice of side

[lozzaman]

doubt that too much, the league is the most important thing.
Thanks.

[Glen whufc]

Ive got to say that i am absolutley gutted at the PFA's decision to throw us out the cup, im 1 of the players going for a great personal and team achievement of trying to win the senior cup for the 3rd time on the bounce and i cant believe that they can make a decision like this when we have seen on a regular basis over the years teams having replays, we beat alconbury 6-1 with a player that has signed for the season and played right back. every angle and answer to this farce shows it was a genuine mistake, so why have they made this decision? what pig headed power trippin excuse could they give to treating good honest local players and a hard working club like we have deliberatly cheated. surely they cant get away with this, dictating which clubs get replays and who get booted out. it would help if someone could clearly tell me what the punishment is for this mistake in the rules.....mr chambers?

[The Peterborough Rover]

What a shame guys - committee people know everything about the rules of the game but nothing about the spirit.

Hope Ortonians have a good season in the league to make up for it

[charlie]

Got to say this also ruins the cup for other side left in it ,winning the cup when the holder are not even in it to defend it,takes away the gloss of winning and competing in the cup

[jb]

surely the game should've been replayed and the team at fault foots the bill for a replay? this is common practise in most cases involving inelligble players and can't really see the problem.

personally i think the incident with seth a few years ago was far more serious and a replay was deemed an accepteble solution then for what was a more serious oversight and not some rule that would be the last thing a manager would think about(well until now anyway!).

[Ross]

Seems to me that they are trying to set a precident, and that by doing this, it may make other teams be extra careful. Seems they have made an example of ortonians in this case, but i just hope, that if anyone else breaks this rule they punish them in the same way

[topband]

I wonder wot would have happened had Alconbury won the game and played an ellligible player. Can u really see them kicking out a Roger Daniels team.
Trouble is peole running football in Peterborough dont want to help clubs they want to punish them all time. Perhaps time they moved on and some fresher faces like some of the pople who post on here took over

[The Fen Tiger]

If ever there was a case where a side has "only just" broken a rule - this was it. If there were ever circumstances which should have meant a club being treated with sympathy over the circumstances of the incident - this was it. If there was ever an occassion where the PFA make the rules up as they go along and get it horribly wrong - this was it.

You have alll been warned - EVERY club from now on will be chucked out no matter what - we shall see eh?

Hope that rod does not give you too much back ache PFA

[Chris Judge]

Having witnessed justice at the hands of the Northants FA the other night I am so glad our club have never come under their apron.
There is little doubt that one man's crusade (not MC) to have our club thrown out of the PFA Cup has paid off for him and I hope he can feel proud that he has robbed a smashing group opf players of a possible hat-trick in the PFA Cup.
Because they are the lads who have been punished most of all.
Not even the mindboggling officers of the PFA could order a replay if any club breaks a similar law in future. They would certainly become a bigger laughing stock than they already are - if that is possible.
To change a policy of replays because the offending teams kept winning the replays is beyond belief. And why wait until the season is under way surely this should have been done at the agm that no one ever attends in the summer ( we are not invited).
You just have to wonder if all the time and effort helping run a club is worth it when you are treated like common cheats by people who should know better. I am certainly giving it a lot of thought now.
These are my own personal vews and have nothing to do whatsoever with Ortonians FC
But by god I hope we win that league this season!

[Dave Baxter]

In trying to move this on, what will happen now is that clubs will be frightened silly of making a mistake - the PFA cup rules are different to the league and a lot easier to get wrong.

I can also see clubs hunting around after a defeat (or before a game?) to see if there is anything they can dig up to get themselves through the back door.

I wouldn't want to see it happen, but it will be interesting to see what happens if another clubs messes up this year - competition could end up very messy!!!!

[The Peterborough Rover]

The Alconbury / Peterborough Northern Star alliance already have its top agents out looking into the history and backgrounds of the Perkins players ahead of their 2nd round game - it would appear that they have discovered that Danny Thomas once got a parking ticket - surely there must be something in the rule book about that?

[jon w]

The decision was a disgrace. The people like Chris and many others like him who work behind the scenes at clubs in the belief they are doing the right thing, suffer at the hands of a bullying dictatorship.

I can see just how much this meant to my mate Tommy, he was so proud to be defending this trophy again and would have been happy to be defeated in a dignified manner, but to lose like that, it's just not cricket!

Watch this space there will be a happy ending.... bullies never win!

[jb]

surely if west ham could get away with a replay after playing a blatantly inelligble player in a professional cup competition where tens of thousands of pounds were to be shelled out due to the error then surely this far less serious matter could've been dealt the same way.

this is a serious own goal by the pfa. they would've gained a lot of respect for overturning a silly decision and prove that the pfa is ran by humans after all!

[Chris Judge]

The end of season game between cup winners and Ortonians is a fantastic idea Jon and I am sure all at Ortonians appreciate what you are doing. If you need any help setting it up just give us a call.

[Tommy Trophy]

I want to try and draw a line under this and move on - we have a big league game with Perkins on Saturday, and anyone who has read my posts on the previous site will know that the League has always been the only thing I have really been interested in, with the cup being nice for the players.

I took some convincing to appeal the PFA decision, because basically their rulebook is worded in such as way as they can do what they want. In terms of the appeal, that was a bizarre experience. Held in what I can only describe as a storage room upstairs at Focus, trying to talk over the sound of PNS U18's training below to a committee of 3 from the Northants FA only 1 of whom I could say for certain was actually alive as 2 did not speak or move for the entire proceedings. I felt like a naughty boy out of Tom Brown's schooldays during a procees that belonged to a Victorian age, and which even Mr.Chambers seemed to be exsasperated at times. Basically an adult discussion was never going to happen.

I made a very long speech in our defence, Mark added a little to that. Only glimmer of hope I felt was when the PFA admitted that the decision to switch from replay to expulsion was a spur of the moment thing at their meeting, but Alan Mutton & Peter Waghorn showed their experience to get them out of it!

I will always maintain that this was an awful decision, and the 3 PFA gentlemen were full of sympathising words on Wednesday, though sympathy before we were voted out 10-1 would have been more appropriate. I also appreciated the call I took from a PFA memeber with whom I had a very forthright discussion, and he held his hands up and admitted that on reflection and with the benefit of hindsight he thinks they got it wrong, but the PFA constitution did not allow for a decision reversal. If anything positive could come out a situation that I think does nothing to anyones reputation then could it be: -

1. Future changes in approach are communicated when the handbooks are sent out etc. so everyone knows where they stand before the competition starts (for what its worth I fully understand the reasons why you do not want replays as it causes havoc with the fixture list - you just should have announced it earlier)
2. That the eligibility rules for the League & PFA Cup are alligned. 50% of clubs only play 1 PFA Cup match a season, and it is silly that they have to read, absorb and ahere to a completely different set for just that 1 game.

A bit long I know, and my frustration is directed at the PFA as a whole, and not at individuals which I think would be wrong - I retain a healthy respect for those people who give up enormous amounts of their time for the game - the end!!!

[Dave Baxter]

Very diplomatic Tommy (Is that what you really think??)

What about this £1000 game that Proactive are puting forward - how do you feel about that, and do you think it will ever happen?

[the ginger assassin]

Well, to be honest i didn't think any other decision would of been possible with the way local football is at the moment one thing that i find hypocritical is all those involved at the expulsion of ortonians from the PFA cup. guys rules are rules as we hear people saying this time and time again in power so adhere to them changing them as often as the wind is making a mockery of the game. I understand you're decision in removing ortonians from the cup but have no confidence in believing you will deliver the same out come to every one who plays an illegal player this is now something that clubs will now monitor for some time to come. one other thing i would liked to have seen is rogers face when he saw chris kay on the team sheet ?

[The Peterborough Rover]

I can't understand why Long Sutton didn't appeal as well? It seems to me that the PFA didn't want 2 replays and that this had a big bearing on the decision to throw you both out - if only 1 of you had made a mistake then you might not have been thrown out???????

[Tommy Trophy]

In response to the question over the £1000 game, I think that it is a fantastic idea, typical of both the incredible support we have had all the way through this issue and Proactive Marketing who are massive supporters of grass roots sport.

How typical of them to come up with a great idea and get it onto the back page of the local paper within 2 days of the appeal!

I have contacted Proactive and offered my support for this game, but only on the basis that ALL of the money goes to charity. £500 is a lot of money for a little club like Ortonians, but I would not feel comfortable gaining financially out of it.

Will the game take place? - I suppose that will be down to whoever wins the elimination competition formally known as the PFA Senior Cup! (Isn't that what happens in the America's Cup Yatching?), but with it being such a decent amount you would have thought most clubs would say yes - after all they are going to get a chance to play in 2 big games.

I understand that Proactive are looking to host the game at a jaw dropping venue - they are so good at opening doors, we will probably be the first game at the new Wembley!