Welcome to the Lancashire Sunday League Website

The LFA Sunday Trophy starts on Sunday 9th September with 22 of our teams competing in 16 ties. Nine teams have home advantage whilst 13 must hit the road. Nine teams have been given a bye and those clubs will get a league game where possible.

There are some eye-catching ties involving our clubs. Premier division Ribbleton will host AFC Longridge, new boys Rufford Park Rangers are at home to Hunters & Ingol Rangers (prem), Vernon Sports (div 1) entertain Tanterton (prem) and Walton celebrate their promotion to division 1 by welcoming Acregate Lane LC (prem). Southport & Ainsdale Amateurs (prem) who won the Trophy in 2017 will travel to Prestley p>

LFA Sunday Trophy - Round 1 (involving clubs from this League)
Games to be played on Sunday 9th September 2018.

Byes:
Arkwrights, Bamber Bridge Town, Blackpool Town, Kingsfold, Leyland Athletic, Tarleton Corinthians, Warton, Worden Rangers, Wyresdale Rangers.
These clubs will be allocated a league fixture where possible;

Eamonn McNamara.

People who say that there’s no loyalty in football so take note of Walton Athletics David Grzwyna who is about to start his 16th consecutive season with the club and he is looking to break the 300 games barrier.

Club secretary Mark Parkinson cannot speak too highly of his “Mr Dependable” club captain. It all started one Sunday night back in July 2003 outside the Blue Ball pub in Bamber Bridge when Mark used all his considerable persuasive powers to beat David into submission and finally getting him to register as a Walton Athletic player on 01 July 2003.

He made his debut away at AFC Ribbleton in the old division 4 on the opening day of the 2003-04 season and David went onto make 22 league and cup appearances that season and he became an integral part of the club.

The following season David was again a first choice centre-back for the club but tragedy happened in early September away to Lane Ends FC, at the pitch at Tanterton Village Green when an accidental challenge resulted in David suffering a double leg break and spending two weeks in Royal Preston Hospital recovering from surgery. But you can’t keep a good man down and David bounced back to resume training in June 2005 and he took over as club captain and he never looked back.

Mark Parkinson said, “David has been our captain since 2005 and he has proudly graced the club colours leading us from Division 4 all the way up to the Premier Division when promoted in 2016. He was also the proud captain when Walton Athletic FC were Presidents Cup Finalists against Southport & Ainsdale Amateurs at Bamber Bridge FC last season.

David Grzwyna stats for Walton Athletic FC

Eamonn McNamara.

PNE Boss Peter Ridsdale once again kindly agreed to make the preliminary round draw of this season’s Syndicate Trust Challenge Cup. Peter, who is always willing to assist the League, sent his best wishes to all our clubs and players for the forthcoming season.

Clubs who lose in either the preliminary or first round of the Challenge Cup are entered into the Presidents Cup. Premier division clubs are excluded from the preliminary and first rounds of the Challenge Cup and therefore cannot compete in the Presidents Cup.

Syndicate Trust Challenge Cup - Preliminary Round
Holders: HUNTERS FC

Eamonn McNamara.

The Lancashire Sunday Football League is looking for a person to take on the voluntary role of Youth Fixtures Manager for season 2018 - 2019.

Previous experience of scheduling league & cup competition fixtures and knowledge of how leagues are run and operate is desirable but not essential.

The successful candidate must have good communication skills and experience of working with computers and will work closely with the League Referees Appointments Manager and our member clubs.

Interested applicants should contact League Chairman Eamonn McNamara by email here.

Club Officials and players are asked to take careful note of the following Amendments to Red Card Reporting as issued by the Football Association.

Currently Referees across the game at all levels when dismissing a player from the field of play are required to write a detailed report of the offence when reporting the dismissal.

The purpose of this report is largely historic and relates to when Players were able to appeal a dismissal and attend a Personal hearing to challenge the report. The move at grassroots level from term based discipline to match based discipline prevented personal hearings for red card offences and was replaced with the wrongful dismissal process.

The requirement to report the detail of the dismissal is not necessary for the Wrongful Dismissal process that now applies at all levels of the game and in fact contributes to confusion as to the purpose of that process.

The ability to claim a Wrongful Dismissal applies where a Club can demonstrate that the decision to send off a player for the offence committed was obviously wrong.

Clubs often concentrate their submissions on perceived errors in the detail of the report rather than whether the decision to send off for the offence was or was not correct. The onus is on the Club to show that the referee was obviously wrong in the dismissal offence and where they cannot satisfy that burden any claim should fail.

It has therefore been agreed to amend the reporting process with effect from the start of the 2018-19 season to operate the same as reporting yellow card offences. This change will apply at all levels of the game.

Therefore, the referee is only required to report the red card offences as laid out in the laws of the game as follows:

Offences of S2 - Violent conduct will be categorised further with the following categories:

There will be no requirement to write any further details for dismissals. This will save the referees time in reporting and avoid supplying unnecessary detail surrounding the offence.

It should be noted that both MOAS and WGS Portal are being amended to permit this change.

Extraordinary Reports
Referees will still be required to write details surrounding extraordinary incidents in the following circumstances.

a. Where the dismissal offence has a more serious impact than the dismissal itself, the referee will be required to submit the dismissal offence as normal and then add a supplementary extraordinary report clarifying why the dismissal was exceptional. Such examples would be where the offence committed included an aggravated breach such as discriminatory language or behaviour (homophobic, sexist or reference to race/colour/religion/ethnicity etc.) or here there was a serious injury caused by the act of violent conduct.

b. Where further misconduct happened following the dismissal such as the player refusing to leave the field of play or committed other further acts of misconduct following the dismissal.

c. Where the offences committed were by non-playing staff or spectators.

Mark Ives
Head of Judicial Services
June 2018

For further details about the physical training sessions please contact Paul Marsden here.

Lancashire Sunday Football League is always happy to accept new referees to its list of officials. If you have any enquiries about refereeing on the League or would like to be added to the list of officials, please contact the League’s Referee Manager David McNamara here.

Mid Lancashire Football League operates on Saturday afternoons for Open Age clubs and they are also happy to accept new referees to its list of officials. If you have any enquiries about refereeing on the League or would like to be added to the list of officials, please contact the League’s Referee Secretary Tony Hawkes here.