Irvine Meadow co-boss Colin Spence has hit out at league chiefs’ handling of a disciplinary probe into last month’s derby against Kilwinning Rangers.
Kilwinning were found to have ‘no case to answer’ over claims they fielded an ineligible player against Meadow on the opening day of the season.
Buffs skipper Kevin Nicoll played the full 90 minutes in his side’s 3-1 West of Scotland League (WoSFL) Premier Division win despite SFA documents showing he had a two-game ban to serve.
But on Saturday, it was announced that a WoSFL disciplinary committee had cleared Buffs of any wrongdoing on the grounds of an administration error outwith the club.
The 3-1 result therefore stands but Spence reckons the whole affair was handled badly from start to finish.
He said: “The Kilwinning manager actually informed us of the outcome first thing on Saturday morning then obviously Kilwinning released a tweet as well.
“The SFA or the West of Scotland League, whoever deals with it, didn’t have the decency to let us know.
“Obviously the boy had a two-match ban – it’s there for all to see. It’s a bit of a joke of a decision to be honest with you.
“It’s almost like going back to the Junior days where they take two weeks to make a decision then they came up with no case to answer.
“You’d think if that was the case it would’ve been dealt with straight away within a day or two.
“We feel hard done by because we could’ve played David Ramsay who was suspended – maybe stated there was an admin error – and the result could have been different that day.”
Ayrshire Football News emailed the WoSFL on Monday asking for an official statement on the decision but no reply has been received to date.
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