Dorset FA’s organisation blasted by Terras’ chief Biddlecombe (From Dorset Echo)

Dorset FA’s organisation blasted by Terras’ chief Biddlecombe

9:00am Saturday 2nd March 2013 in Sport By Adam Summers

NIGEL Biddlecombe has fired a broadside at the Dorset FA for the “atrocious organisation” of last Wednesday night’s Senior Cup semi-final at the County Ground.

The Weymouth chairman thought Wimborne Town deserved their victory but was disgusted with the standard of the officials and the pitch, and the lack of medical staff and facilities after Kyle Critchell was left screaming in agony on the changing room floor after sustaining a serious leg injury.

Biddlecombe, who is also planning to make his complaints official to both the DCFA and the Football Association, told Echosport: “It was shocking all-round.

“Our performance was poor, Kyle’s injury was a nightmare and Ed Palmer’s sending off was the result of the worst refereeing performance I have set my eyes on for many years.

“The tackle that took Kyle out was from behind and it was late, but although the referee admitted to Brendon King later that he thought it was reckless, their guy still stayed on the pitch.

“After that Ed then went shoulder to shoulder with another one of their chaps, took the ball, but was sent off – it was just unbelievable.”

Palmer will now have to serve a four-game ban but it was the treatment of Critchell that really left the Terras’ chief fuming. He added: “It took 10-15 minutes to find a stretcher and at the end of the match we had to keep the players out of the changing room because we had nowhere else to put him.
“The DCFC representative was completelyanonymous at that stage and really we were just left to sort it ourselves.

“It was atrocious organisation and the fact myself and a couple of supporters had to help carry Kyle off just says it all.

“The lack of medical staff and facilities was completely unacceptable.”

To make matters worse, it took almost an hour for the ambulance to eventually arr-ive and it appears Critchell will now miss the rest of the season.

 

Biddlecombe said: “Kyle has been outstanding recently and the fact this has happened is so disappointing for the club, manager Bren-don King and in particular the player himself.

“He was in a lot of pain and we owe a great debt of gratitude to our physio Emma Tonkin who stayed with Kyle all the way through it before eventually bringing him back home at 3am the next morning. She was absolutely fantastic.”

The fallout from the game has left some Terras’ fans questioning whether the club should enter the competition at all.

When asked for his thoughts, Biddlecombe went to say: “The Dorset Senior Cup is a hindrance for Wey-mouth as it is for several other clubs and that is nothing against the likes of Portland United and Hamworthy Rec-reation.

“We didn’t need that game and due to an insufficient refereeing performance and an awful tackle we are now left shy of players ahead of some very important league matches.

“If it was a voluntary thing then we wouldn’t play in it, but if we didn’t enter it we would have to pay around £700-800. It is supposed to be the county’s premier competition yet on Wednesday we played a semi-final at an unsuitable ground with second-rate facilities.

“I would like to think the DCFA will now take a look at it but I am certainly not holding my breath.

“There are three things that I would like to see: consideration to where matches are played because Hamworthy United clearly isn’t suitable; consideration to what officials are appointed to these games because the one we had was clearly not experienced enough; and finally consideration to when the ties are played.

“What happened to Kyle and Ed could seriously jeopardise our efforts to make the play-offs. I am hopeful it won’t because the other players are good enough to react but it has certainly been a huge setback.”

When asked to comment on Wednesday night’s encounter at the County Ground, Dorset FA chief executive Sue Hough said: “Unfortunately I wasn’t at the game but what I can say is that if an official complaint comes through from Wey-mouth FC’s club secretary then obviously their objections would be investigated.”