AS "eventful" as my football life has been over the last 12 months, I have to say the last few weeks have been some of the most unpleasant and stressful in my time in youth football.
It's all come out of an Under 14 County Cup quarter final which was played over a month ago.
Our opponents arrived at Ferring an hour before kick-off, reporting they had a full quota of players, and within the rules we both handed our team sheets
to referee Peter Fenn before the game.
But then, at half-time, the opposing manager approached the ref to bring-on a substitute who was already allegedly on the field according to the team sheet. Which begs the question, who were they trying to bring off?
This was all witnessed by Sussex County FA Chief Executive Ken Benham who was watching the game. To his credit, although clearly things were not right, he did not immediately get involved as he wanted the issue to go through the proper channels of the cup committee.
The opposing team, who won in the last minute 3-2, when questioned about the team sheet and substitutions, claimed that they didn't all arrive at Glebelands at the same time, as they previously stated.
And they put a player in the starting 11 who, they said, didn't turn up until just before kick off.
Two questions posed by both Mr Benham and officials at Ferring: If you put a player down to start, who wasn't there, clearly he is an integral part of your team.
And then if he turns up just before kick-off for a vital cup game, are you really not going to use him until half-time?
And no-one at Ferring, including Mr Benham, could recall any opposing player turning up just before kick-off, given the proximity of the pitch to the road and changing rooms.
All this was put to the said cup committee, who acknowledged that whilst our opponents had not adhered to procedure, the result should stand.
At which point Mr Benham, again to his credit, realising that there might have been more to this than meets the eye, referred the decision back to the committee, highlighting what had previously been revealed.
But despite Mr Benham's involvement, two of the committee decided to go against the view of their own CEO and confirm their original decision, and the result stood.
Some reading this might say Harty's just a bad loser. Well, having run teams for nearly eight years, I assure you I have lost more games than I've won, and I pride myself on always being gracious in defeat, something which my fellow managers and officials can testify to.
If my side loses to a better team then so be it. Two weeks later we went out of the League Cup semi-final on penalties for the second successive year, and have no problem with that at all.
This, I'm afraid, is different because I feel the boys of Ferring FC should still be in the running for a semi-final place, and what's more, they had the backing of the county's most senior football administrator.
Ken Benham and his team have transformed the County FA into a slick, efficient organisation; however, the head-in-the-sand attitude of the cup committee has clearly undermined him.
As gutted as my parents and players are, we'll get over it. But if the "blazers" of the County FA carry on treating the chief executive in this manner, then they might find him move-on to pastures new, which would be a disaster for all of Sussex football.
