Hollands & Blair chairman Paul Piggott writes to Sheppey United board to apologise for alleged homophobic comments aimed at Sheppey United player Jahmal Howlett-Mundle during Kent Senior Trophy Final

HOLLANDS & BLAIR chairman Paul Piggott has written a letter to Sheppey United to issue an apology after alleged homophobic comments were directed towards Sheppey United’s centre-half Jahmal Howlett-Mundle,  who announced in July that he is bisexual.

 

Sheppey United retained the Kent Senior Trophy in Maidstone last Sunday with a 2-1 win over Scott Porter’s side but the way that Howlett-Mundle was treated cast a shadow on the game.

Ernie Batten’s Sheppey United are on course of winning the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division title, should they beat K Sports on Monday and Tower Hamlets at Holm Park on Saturday, 23 April. 

Chatham Town are two points behind and beat relegation-threatened Rusthall 2-0 yesterday with goals coming from Dan Bradshaw and Jack Evans.

Striker Bradshaw has scored 54 goals this season, whille midfielder Jack Evans has notched 29.

K Sports are jointly-managed by Batten's sons, Ian and George and George spoke about facing his father for the first time and possibly damaging Sheppey United's title bid following their 2-0 defeat at Glebe on Monday 11 April.

The Ites have secured promotion into the Isthmian League alongside Chatham Town and are on course of a quadruple should they beat Crowborough Athletic to land the Challenge Cup in Chatham on Monday 2 May 2022 (13:00).

Piggott wrote a letter, addressed to Matt Smith and the Sheppey United board, which was published on Sheppey’s social media.

“The main reason for this letter is to extend an apology from our club to yours for the appalling nature of what happened from our bench in the first half of the match last weekend,” wrote Mr Piggott.

“We have acted internally to deal with what was a regretful situation and believe strongly that there is no place in the game, or in any walk of life for abuse of that nature.

“The authorities will no doubt be looking into this and we will see what comes of this in time, but myself and the Hollands & Blair committee felt that the least we can do is write and apologise to you and the board and indeed the player for the actions of one of our players.

“We hope this matter doesn’t cause any bad relations between our two clubs as we continue what I believe to be strong relationships of two local football clubs who share many of the same ideals in what we want to achieve in the game.

“The communities in which we exist can only benefit from organisations like ours thriving to achieve and long may that continue.”

The two sides met again in the league yesterday, with league leaders Sheppey United winning 3-0 at Holm Park.

Meanwhile, Hollands & Blair’s home game against Canterbury City tomorrow, which was scheduled to be played at neighbouring Lordswood, will be played at Blair’s Star Meadow ground in Gillingham after all.

“It had been moved to Lordswood FC due to the expected start of the ground renovations at Star Meadow but these will start at a later date,” added the club.

Hollands & Blair are to install a 3G pitch ahead of next season. Tonbridge Angels and Whitstable Town and Herne Bay will be playing on artificial pitches next season too.

Sheppey United and Chatham Town already play on artificial surfaces.

Beckenham Town have been promoted to the Isthmian League and can win the Combined Counties League Premier Division South title if they win at Raynes Park Vale tomorrow (13:00).

Beckenham Town's only title sucess came back in 1927-28 when they won the London League Division One (second tier) title.

Jason Huntley's side won promotion with a 4-0 win at Redhill last Wednesday night and beat Guildford City 3-0 yesterday.
to ensure their stay in the division would only last one year.

Beckenham Town's Eden Park Avenue has the best grass playing surface in Kent and has passed ground grading creteria to host Isthmian League football for the first time next season.