St Patrick's Athletic reacted angrily last night to Bohemians' successful bid to have the league game scheduled to take place between the two clubs at Richmond Park postponed to an, as yet, undecided date in the future.
Just over four hours before the game was supposed to start, St Patrick's received a fax from the league instructing them that, because Bohemians had lodged an appeal with the FAI over the way in which the match had been rescheduled from the weekend, it would have to be postponed again. No date has yet been set for the hearing of the appeal but in effect that does not matter greatly as the northside club have already achieved their objective by ensuring that the match did not take place last night.
Bohemians' actions, said their rivals in a statement issued last night, had not been "in the spirit of football" but because of them they had "avoided playing a vital league match without Kevin Hunt, Alex Nesovic or Stephen Caffrey". A clubs spokesman went on to say that they would be contacting the league today about the matter but, he added, "the Bohemians line that that could not play the game now because they had players in England seems amazing, I mean we were in the same position and we just had to tell players to cancel their trips because they are here to play football and this was an important game".
Bohemians secretary Gerry Cuffe yesterday insisted that the club's determination to honour commitments given to players with homes in England that they could return there for the New Year had been the sole motivation for their persistence in seeking another postponement. The fact that last night's Leinster Senior Cup match against Ashtown Villa disposes of Hunt and Nesovic's suspensions, however, while effectively halving Caffrey's has prompted some cynicism regarding their motives.
"The fact is," says Cuffe "that the Ashtown Villa game, which had already been postponed several times because of our attempts to play the league game against Kilkenny City, had been fixed several weeks ago and these players were not due to be suspended at that time.
"Had we wanted to indulge in sharp practices we could have played it last week before what should have been the original date for the St Patrick's game but we didn't do that. The postponement was outside our control but when it happened we simply wanted to stick with the arrangements we had made previously for the New Year period. We put forward three and then four alternative dates for the game so I really can't see how our position can be viewed as having been unreasonable."
The situation is particularly ironic, however, given Bohemians' role last year in preventing Jason Byrne from playing in the FAI Cup semi-final against them after Bray had used a Leinster Senior Cup to enable the young striker to serve out a suspension and St Patrick's officials are clearly convinced that they are the victims of a similar ploy by Bohemians on this occasion.
The Byrne dispute eventually resulted in the FAI having to pay Wanderers substantial compensation and the Inchicore club may well now pursue the league for the costs incurred prior to yesterday's late postponement.
