Farnborough manager goes on 14 minute rant over saga with his club being expelled from county cup

Farnborough manager Spencer Day goes on a 14 minute rant over a saga with his club being expelled from Hampshire Senior county cup.

Ronan Silva, a former player at Crawley Town, joined the National League South outfit in February, but it appears that his move has ended in his current side getting removed from a cup competition.

Silva played in four league games since he joined Farnborough, with the club being drawn with AFC Portchester in the Hampshire County Cup. The fixture wasn’t played on its original date, and that’s when the saga begins.

AFC Portchester, currently storming Wessex League Premier Division, top and nine points clear of second place Bemerton Heath Harlequins, at first refused to play Farnborough on the date set, but were forced to due to pressure from the National League South side.

Silva, a free transfer from Crawley Town, had already joined Farnborough by the time that a new date was set. He played in the game, it ended with a 8-0 win for Boro, but then AFC Portchester put in a complaint alleging that Farnborough had fielded an ineligible player.

Their boss stated that there were no clear rules due to the large gap in fixture dates and that it was a ‘grey area’. They then intend to appeal if necessary, with Farnborough going on to be expelled from the cup with Portchester given a bye into the next round, leading to Farnborough discovering the decision to remove.

Interviewer: Spencer on the Hampshire senior cup, we’ve seen on social media that AFC Portchester and Basingstoke Town are facing each other in the next round. Please inform the supporters what’s going on

SD: I’ve got notes. Stand by. So first and foremost thing is I’ve spoken to the directors they know they’ve asked me to speak to everyone tell us what’s going on and I’ve written down lots of notes so it’s not off the cuff.

SD: And first thing we have to say is we’ve not been informed we have not been officially told that we at this moment have been thrown out of the cup and I’m gonna try and use my words carefully I’m going to give facts and then everyone can make their own decisions because I’m sure this will go further.

SD: Number one the reason we’re fighting so hard about this is that we won the competition with the holders we worked incredibly hard to win the competition nearly every year we put a strong first team into this competition unlike nearly every side who treat it as a very low level inadverted commas tinpot cup and we wanted to reward our supporters who are the most fantastic night at Eastleigh with everything that was thrown against us which I’m going to talk about as well because a lot of it is unknown and we wanted to give the opportunity to retain it and when the draw came out and we were told a number of dates and we have been informed numerous times in writing that Portchester were ordered to play this game on the fourth I think it was fourth or fifth of Jan.

SD: And they refused and there’s a lot of nonsense going on here and we our fixture secretary wrote to them numerous times and Portchester said no we’ve got a huge League match and we sold out catering and we’re not playing but didn’t matter because the Hampshire FA wrote to them and said you are playing and they copied us in and then there was no response and our fixture secretary messaged them nearly every day by email and message and then she asked me to get involved and I’ve got my phone here and I can assure you that I called message and text of which I’ve got on my phone and they decided to ignore us the whole time.

SD: We wondered what was going on because we expected to play on fourth now my first reaction was is that normally in these competitions you have to be registered players need to be registered before the game and I will categorically state every player that played against Portchester was fully registered to this book club and was eligible to play and we’re into a gray area and it’s a really poor area and the gray area is about what is the round date and Hampshire using that there was a round date but I can’t see it and as you all know in an interview Dom I mentioned before I was worried how many players we had left but then another director said to me that’s not a rule it’s not a rule you know the game was set eventually for well it was meant to be on the fourth fifth and Portchester refused to play because they had a big game I would like to remind people that we asked to move the Hampshire Cup Final because we had a huge game for promotion against Hayes and Yeading the following Saturday and they refused so all of a sudden Portchester had put pressure clearly on but can be no other thing and nothing happens and then we found out today going through the messages that amazingly email telling Portchester to play the game didn’t get out.

SD: I’m sure if I they said oh it didn’t it got stuck in the system then they said they weren’t available on Christmas New Year they didn’t look at their emails but we’ve got all the messages on the phones as well so I’ve got messages Elaine our fixture secretary’s got messages emails and messages and they’ve all disappeared nobody’s looking at it so the inference is that Porsche said well we’re not playing so all of a sudden we then say well we can play any day and they said we’re going to pick a free date for you which is now on the I guess the fourth or 10th of February another five weeks away the problem we’ve now got is we don’t have an academy and there’s an inference here that well fortunately thinking we don’t have enough players to play this game

SD: We didn’t know about it and it doesn’t say in the rules it’s not clear that it’s not like a postponement in the FA Cup due to weather where if you’re eligible for the first game you’re not you’ve got to be eligible for the first game all our players were fully registered and Portchester disregard the competition send their poor kids to us we play who we’ve got available on the day and it’s like was it eight or nine a portion of complaint well got a big problem here because I’m sure if I haven’t done their job they haven’t sent the email they claim we’d like to see evidence that it bounced back we’ve put in mitigation that if the rule if they’re always the first date well that’s a problem sometimes if you play two months later like we’re doing they’re saying it’s the 12th of December we would have had nine fit plays we have represented this competition honourably we’re a very big club in Hampshire I’m not showing off we are and we are being treated quite frankly with disdain they’ve not even told us we’re out I’m not even told us they’ve just done it they’ve not looked at the mitigation because the rules are not very clear every player was fully registered to play so Portchester had a massive game first v second on Saturday after the Hampshire Cup game and sent their kids so where’s the respect in that when we set a strong team for the Hampshire Cup Final

SD: I think it it’s we’re going to appeal if we can we don’t know yet um because we’ve only been told because it’s on the point of principle and the reason is for our fans we’ve had a fantastic night there and we want to a honor the competition and I think it’s right that it looks at the moment the only way they can get us out of the competition is is to look into a gray area and let me know the courtesy of sending the reasons why yeah and about this rounding because it is a gray area and every player was fully registered and Paul should have sent their kids and said oh we don’t care we’ve got a big game on the Saturday well why have they forced the game so far back so that we don’t have players knowledgeable to fit the game you could say they’ve done it deliberately it’s just wrong as you hope to win it if we’re not in it how can you win a cup when you’ve lost 8-0 and you’ve disregarded the competition by sending your kids prioritizing the lead you know we’ve been messed around with Bournemouth games and you can’t play at their place and you’ve got to do this you’ve got to do that and we’re one of the few clubs who put in the first team.

You can watch more of this interview by clicking HERE – continuing from where we left of.

This is what fans said as the Farnborough manager goes on a 14 minute rant over the saga with his club being expelled from a county cup…

@ThePoetOfDoom: We should pick an XI from the Bar next year. Sod the Hampshire FA.

@tryan255: Well said spencer.

@rewindmyselecta: Spencer taking no prisoners

@farnboroughfan1: Oh boy…

@MrSabistonPE: Spencer, I have just gained serious respect for you after that

@AlanOstler1481: I said that @HampshireFA had it in for us for some reason when they wouldn’t move the final last season. They don’t like us so let’s just move away from them

@jonnyblundra: What a jumped up twat. He said before the game they were going to withdraw, and now lecturing everybody on respect and Farnborough biggest club in Hampshire 🤣 I will let you down gently, you broke the rules, you got caught, now FUCK OFF.

@maxbarron9:
Don’t blame him.
We shouldn’t be in it.
HFA are corrupt.
Feel for them even if some of their mob rob our flags
We’ll only put our 23s again

@TheYellows2000: Very interesting. Gotta respect the stance though and while we’d love to be in we have bigger issues. I don’t know the details of the @AFCPortchester rise this season but between this and the lights going out you start to question if someone the the FA is paying Pitman’s wages 🤣

@Mark_Pie: @AFCPortchester disregard the competition by playing kids, but we are thrown out but haven’t even been told we have been thrown out! @HampshireFA would be nice if you actually properly communicated with one of your member clubs and stop making up the rules as u go along it seems!

@stevenblake92: You have to massively respect Spencer for this. Hopefully it gets resolved and Farnborough are rightfully put back in the Hampshire Senior Cup. What a c***ty team Portchester are.

@daveuptheboro: Fuck the Hampshire Fa, Fair play Spencer, morals. Sign us fans up to play In it next year, I’ll go up top.

@TheBoroWalk: FFS Spencer, stop sitting on the sodding fence.

@_archiegrant6: Massive respect to Spencer for this. We have been treated unfairly and it is not right. You are doing the right thing Spencer and you have my full backing with it.

@vinny5_J: Really really bad look for AFC Portchester and the Hampshire FA. Damning. Fair play to Spencer Day for coming out and being open and honest about, Farnborough officially/unofficially/who knows being kicked out of the Hampshire Cup after their 8-0 demolition of Portchester.

See the grey area below which is in the rules twice, that’s twice.!

It’s not grey, it’s dark black and brilliant white, couldn’t be any clearer.

Poor Spencer.

Good luck @AFCPortchester against Basingstoke. pic.twitter.com/muAVaJjTIe

— Jonny Blundra (@jonnyblundra) March 1, 2023