Bexhill United boss calls for Eastbourne Town to be 'removed' from Sussex Senior Cup after call-off

Eastbourne Town had notified the Sussex FA and said they were unable to field a team for the cup clash at the Polegrove due to lack of player availability.

“We were obviously disappointed not to be able to complete our Sussex Senior Cup third round tie on Tuesday night,” said Light.

“After a few postponements due the weather in recent weeks the pitch had thawed out nicely and was in great condition.

"We had seen an email that they [Eastbourne Town] had sent to the Sussex FA over the weekend saying they couldn’t raise a side for the game, which to a degree I sympathise with as at this level it’s a battle every week to make sure you have enough players available.

"All eyes are now on The Sussex FA who have been pretty inconsistent on matters of this type in the past, but according to the competition rules we expect Eastbourne Town to be removed from the competition for failing to fulfil the fixture.

"Any other outcome than that I feel compromises the integrity of the competition as teams in future rounds who can’t field their strongest line up will know they can just not turn up and it’ll be re arranged without consequence.”

On Monday, Town issued a statement on their website and the club fully expect to compete in the competition, with a revised date to face Bexhill. “Due to player unavailability, we are unable to fulfill the Sussex County FA Senior Cup fixture at Bexhill tomorrow evening. We informed SCFA well in advance that we could not play this week due to the unavailability of players. We await to hear from the SCFA for confirmation of a revised date.”