CRAWLEY'S quest to achieve Football league status suffered a setback this week when they were docked four points by the Conference for not registering summer signing Isaiah Rankin properly.
I think something should be gleaned from the words "summer signing" as I find it absolutely astounding that the error has taken so long to come to light.
With all but four clubs not being full time, the Conference is now basically the fifth tier o
f professional football in this country, yet the season is five months old.
Former league clubs Mansfield Town and Oxford United have also fallen foul of the same legislation and have received similar punishments.
Of course rules are rules but like I said things must be fairly 'misty' to take so long to come to light.
Perhaps the Conference officials should look at how the leagues lower down are run as having been involved with youth football for seven years, The Mid Sussex and The Arun and Chichester leagues are extremely efficient.
In fact, I would go as far as saying that Kathy Wilson at the ACYFL is probably one of the best football league administrators, along with Sir Laurie Claydon at the Worthing League, I have ever come into contact with.
She's helpful, informative and fair. I once had a colleague at Worthing United Youth who unfortunately made a mistake on his emailed match return card, which Kathy not only picked-up within minutes of its submission but understood why the mistake had been made – and rather than issuing fine rectified the error within the hour.
No comfort at all to Crawley's Steve Evans, who must now think somebody up there clearly doesn't like him, as he was docked points for something he had no part of when he first arrived at the Broadfield.
Although promotion is not the issue, another manager suffering a points deduction is fledgling Bognor manager Darin Killpartrick.
Already almost marooned at the bottom of Conference South, another ineligible player issue has come to light and "Daba" starts his managerial career with a seven point deduction.
I think the phrase most apt at this time is "kicking a man when he's down" but if anyone has the character to step up to the plate and take the challenge full-on it's Darin.
With the legendary Lenny as his "old man" and having played under the much-missed Bob Albon in his formative footballing years at Worthing United, he certainly won't roll over and give up.
- I had a blast from the past this week whilst visiting a well known local solicitor's office in Broadwater.
I came across a shield commemorating Worthing Rugby Club's victory in the 1973 Sussex Sevens Competition.
A certain Mr Bob Rogers captained the side that day, but also included in the remaining half dozen was former Tarring High School games master David Barnes, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago, and still one of Worthing's premier hoteliers, Michael Clinch.
