DAVID THORPE North Walsham's hopes of promotion to the higher echelons of the National League have been hit by a four point penalty for fielding an unregistered player.
DAVID THORPE
North Walsham's hopes of promotion to the higher echelons of the National League have been hit by a four point penalty for fielding an unregistered player.
Lock Phil Binneman, who was drafted into the squad as an emergency late call-up for last weekend's Division Three South trip to Clifton after one of the injury-hit club's other players had pulled out on the Friday morning.
But with team manager John Baines on holiday nobody realised that Binneman, having been de-registered at the end of last season during a period when he was looking to move on, had never been re-registered for National League action, despite staying on to play for the second team.
Although he appeared for only a few minutes as a replacement in the latter stages of Saturday's 17-10 victory, it was enough to have Walsham stripped of four points, leaving them nine points adrift of leaders Lydney.
“Last season we lost the league by three points so losing four is obviously a very big blow,” admitted Jon Curry, the club's director of coaching yesterday.
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