Penney denies abandonment claims

Darlington manager Dave Penney has denied claims from Droylsden boss Dave Pace that he asked for the FA Cup first round replay to be called off. Quakers lost the match 1-0 as they crashed out of the competition at the first stage.

The game was stopped for more than half hour thanks to an injury to Liam Hatch. The forward had a suspected neck injury and had to wait for an ambulance to arrive before he could be moved.

The proper provisions to move Hatch were not available at the ground which is why Quakers waited for an ambulance before moving the player. Pace, the manager of the Blue Square North side, was quoted as suggesting that Penney wanted the game called off. “Is that a laugh? There were only 12 minutes to go,” he said.

Penney responded to that claim last night. Speaking in the Times he said: “Their manager can say what he wants, but the most important thing is the player’s welfare,” he said. “There’s no sour grapes on our part that they won the game. We were content to abide by the referee’s decision, whether we had to play on or come back again.

“It was just an accidental collision between two of our lads as Richie clattered into him and Liam fell on his neck. He said he felt a little click in his neck and that made us all fearful. Our physio wasn’t happy to move him because they didn’t have the right stretcher, so we called for an ambulance. That’s why we had the half-hour wait. We needed a frac board and a neck brace and they hadn’t got those. The ambulance brought them.

“I never asked for the game to be abandoned. As we were standing there, I asked the referee what the criteria were for an abandonment, if we were waiting for 10, 20, 30 minutes. Would we all come back and play the final ten minutes? He said if we were forced to abandon, we’d all come back and start afresh.”