Harvest and Mob Albion ordered to replay title-deciding Mid-Solent League fixture – almost three months after the season ended

Harvest Reserves beat Mob Albion on March 22 to be crowned champions of Division 1 of the Mid-Solent League.

Had Mob won the game, they would have clinched the title. Had the game been drawn, Burrfields would have been crowned champions.

However, an independent commission has now ruled that the game must be replayed next Saturday - June 11 - because of ‘player eligibility’ issues.

Harvest fielded Logan Vickers against Mob, with the player having only recently appeared for the club’s first team in a Hampshire Premier League fixture.

‘It’s a joke, an absolute joke,’ stated Harvest’s first team boss Steve Harris, who will take charge of the second team next weekend.

‘I find it bizarre, completely baffling.

‘The whole point of a reserve team is to support the first team.’

Harvest have now got to pay a £160 pitch fee to replay the game against Mob at Front Lawn in Leigh Park.

Harvest are also waiting to see if their first team will be promoted to the top flight of the HPL.

If they are, then he said the club will withdraw their reserves from the ‘Mickey Mouse’ Mid-Solent and play in the Hampshire FA’s Combination East Division next season.

Other local HPL top flight clubs - Paulsgrove, Locks Heath, Clanfield and Hayling United - fielded reserve teams in the Combination East in 2021/22.

If Mob win the replayed game, they will complete a league and cup double having beaten Meon Milton 3-2 in the Father Purcell Cup final at Horndean in April.

But if the replayed match is drawn, Burrfields will take the title - almost five months after they last played a league game! Their final fixture was a home loss to Mob on February 26.