Shots And Cherries Charged By FA

Last updated : 02 February 2010 By Mike Wray

Aldershot Town and AFC Bournemouth have both been charged by the FA following the on the pitch bust-up during the two sides League Two fixture at the EBB Stadium on January 23rd.

With the Cherries chasing the game, they tried to speed up play by introducing a ball from the dugout so as they could take a throw-in quicker while The Shots were attempting to slow the game down and introduce a substitution.

With Shots manager Kevin Dillon pointing out the "offence", the referee blew-up for the original matchball to be used, by which time ex-Shot Clark Masters had collected the ball and threw it back to the Bournemouth player - who wasn't watching and it struck him on the side of the face.

The Bournemouth player then smashed the ball he was holding into the Shots dug-out, sparking a mass hand-bag incident directly in front of the tunnel and more importantly, the referee which resulted in Masters and a Bournemouth player being sent off.

With Bournemouth players blaming Masters for starting the incident on their official website and in the local media, The Shots appealed the sending off as video evidence clearly showed that Masters played no part and that the incident which led to the ball striking the Bournemouth player was deemed as unintentional and Masters won the appeal and the ban was overturned.

The FA have however viewed the footage of the match and read the report submitted by the referee and both clubs have been charged with an offence under FA Rule E20 (a) – failure to ensure its players and/or officials conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour.

Both sides have until 12th February 2010 to respond.