The club has decided that we will not be fulfilling the Stanfeld game and I stand by that, says Peckham Town boss Alan Jacobs

Saturday 29th April 2017

PECKHAM TOWN manager Alan Jacobs has explained why his club have pulled out of their fixture away to Stansfeld on Wednesday night.

The Andreas Carter Joma Kent County Premier League fixture was supposed to take place at Glebe’s Foxbury Avenue ground in Chislehurst but Peckham will take any fine from the League for pulling out of the fixture in advance.

Peckham Town are currently in third-place in the table with 60 points on the board and they are now 10 points behind leaders Punjab United, a combative side that beat Peckham 1-0 courtesy of Luke Adam’s close range header after 22 minutes at Pynners Close this afternoon.

Peckham Town have decided to end their campaign today after midfielder Alli Abdullahi was assaulted on the pitch by an unnamed Stansfeld player earlier on in the season and do not want to play them to complete their 30-match campaign.

"I don’t know if you know what happened in the first game. There was an incident in the first game early November,” said Jacobs.

“A player got his jaw broke and that’s now going to Crown Court, which I’ve been told is going to happen at the end of August.

“Because we’ve got players who are playing who may be called as witnesses the club are not prepared to play the next fixture for health and safety reasons, whatever else you want to call it.

“Not only me but Bryan Hall, as owner of the club, has decided that we will not be fulfilling that game and I stand by him.  He’s asked me my views and I’m with the club 100%.

“Football is not just about football. It’s about looking after your players and I’m not going into detail about the Stansfeld game but it’s not going to happen!

“The last game was abandoned, three points gone. We don’t play for them. The next game there’s another three points we can’t play for so that’s six possible points that we haven’t been able to play for this season. If you stuck that on top of our total (60) that still sticks us in or around it, maybe we could’ve sneaked in and got a runners-up spot.

“There’s got to be more to it than just a game and it’s got to be those issues, you’ve got to protect the players. 

“I said to them it’s a bit of plastic or a little trophy at the end of the season. You get bragging rights for a little while but the boy hasn’t worked since then. There’s been a lot of issues.  He’s still not working at the moment.”

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