Havant defender fails in Cup bid

Havant and Waterlooville's Justin Gregory. Picture by Dave Haines

Havant and Waterlooville full-back Justin Gregory will definitely miss Saturday's FA Cup tie at Liverpool.

His club had hoped that he would be able to serve a one-match ban in a rearranged league game on Wednesday.

But the Football Association deemed the moving of the match at Thurrock a deliberate bid by the Blue Square South club to manipulate the fixture list.

Any appeal against the FA's decision was then ruled redundant when the game fell victim to floodlight failure.

A light went out after 19 minutes at Thurrock's Ship Lane ground and, although play eventually restarted, a second failure forced the referee to call off the match.

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"I'm so disappointed, I'm devastated," Gregory, who picked up the suspension for accruing five yellow cards.

"I believe in fate and it was obviously fate that I wasn't going to play at Anfield. Unfortunately the dream has ended there.

"It seems to be very convenient and it seems to have got the FA out of a big hole, as it were. A floodlit failure is a floodlit failure.

"I was pleading with the referee at half-time to get the game on. Both sides wanted to play but the referee was adamant the game was not going ahead.

"Obviously he has his responsibilities, he doesn't want to get anyone injured, but I am devastated," he told Sky Sports News.