An interesting report I must say, and the majority quite true!

Unfortunately what the reporter alluded to mention was the horrendous tackle made by one of the Bramham midfielders (but completely missed by the referee) on a 16 year old Kirk Deighton Rangers substitute after approx 75 mins.

This tackle was two footed, blatantly nowhere near the ball and quite frankly appalling. After much jeering and unsporting behaviour from the majority of the Bramham players, the young substitute had to come off!

Consequently the Kirk Deighton Rangers defender spent all Christmas in hospital having his ankle operated on to repair the 3 fractures made by the Bramham player. Coupled with that fact, he has now had to cancel his skiing trip with school in January; I’m sure you can imagine, life is a little bleak for the young teenager at the moment.

As a keen follower of football, but more recently with Kirk Deighton Rangers; I have never seen such immaturity and bad sportsmanship in the game!

Finally; I dread to think what type of advertisement this portrays to juniors to progress to open age football; but certainly Bramham Football Club did not promote the true meaning of the game ‘Football’ on that day.

In response to the comments on this match report, firstly may I express on behalf of Bramham Football Club my sympathy to the young man injured in what I thought was a game generally played in good spirit. In drafting the report for the game I had no idea that this incident had occured, and perhaps as the referee had not seen it either, maybe it had been consider an innocuous incident at the time.

Nonetheless I expect players of Bramham Football Club to act in a proper sporting manner on the field. We too have junior teams and are trying to develop that aspect of the club and to do it in the proper spirit.

We do not normally publish anonymous comments on our website, but we do wish to be open with colleagues from other clubs and hence the publication.

Please pass on our best wishes to the young man for a speedy and full recovery. We have enjoyed excellent relationships with our colleagues at Kirk Deighton for many years and some fine encounters on the field and would hope that, that relationship would not be tarnished.

The comments made by the Kirk Deighton representative amaze me to say the least. I would love to know which match this person was watching, it certainly wasn't the match I was watching. Firstly, I watched the whole game and saw no incident which required any treatment from either physio, and we received no bookings in this match which must also confirm that the referee didn't see any incident. Having broken both my legs playing football, experience tells me that you tend to get carried off the pitch usually by ambulance staff. The concept that a Kirk Deighton player broke his leg in 3 places and had to spend all Christmas in Hospital is laughable, it simply didn't happen in this game. The comments made about bad sportsmanship also cofuse me. The game was played in good spirits with no bad feeling between the two sides at all. We attended the clubhouse after the game and, as allways, enjoyed the hospitality provided by Kirk Deighton, there was no mention of an injury to any Kirk Deighton Player. Very confusing. I would love to know who made this report from Kirk Deighton, from where they watched the game and what relationship they have to the injured player. My guess is that the player was more likely injured celebrating christmas in the town after the game.

Having been informed by friends and colleagues of the anonymous posting and additional comments, I feel it necessary to detail exactly what happened in the Kirk Deighton Rangers v Bramham game on the 23rd December 2006 and eliminate any further illusions being posted.

Having played in this game, I can only guess the anonymous representative who posted the comment was probably watching the same one as I was playing in. The majority of this game was played in good spirits (quite right) apart from the detailed challenge which was late and certainly un-necessary! The laughter and jeering detailed in the report was definitely apparent, but with all due respect the Bramham players did not know the exact consequence of this challenge at that time.

Paul is quite right when he mentions that no incident required treatment from either physio or no bookings were received. This was simply down to the player carrying himself off the field of play and being personally driven to hospital, and the referee not seeing the incident. I know this by speaking to the teenager recently and asking this same question and also attempting to speak to the referee about the challenge on the day, when I was quite bluntly informed to go away. Experience tells me this is normally due to the referee not seeing the challenge, because if he did I would have expected some element of punishment to be brought upon the Bramham player!!

With regards to Paul mentioning that ‘the concept that a Kirk Deighton player broke his leg in 3 places and had to spend all Christmas in Hospital is laughable’; I can emphatically substantiate that the 16 year old player has broken his ankle (not leg) in 3 places, remained in hospital over the Christmas period and will remain in cast and on crutches until at least March 2007. For it was I that received a telephone call on Boxing Day from the player’s unhappy and very upset mother explaining the full details of his injuries, believe me it certainly was not a laughable conversation.

For immediate clarification, it wasn't until the player was driven to hospital by his own father after the game that we knew the actual extent of the damage; therefore this it why both teams attended the clubhouse after the game without any discussion of the incident!

Finally and more importantly; I am surprised to read that a senior official from Bramham Football Club has been allowed to post such a comment assuming that the 16 year old teenager would have more than likely injured himself celebrating Christmas in the town after the game! Unfortunately, he now has to nurse a broken ankle for approximately 3 months due to a poor tackle performed by a Bramham Football Club player, when actually being 16 years old I would doubt he would even get served in ‘town’ but should have been looking forward to an enjoyable skiing trip with school that has now had to be cancelled and to date not reimbursed!

Therefore concluding; I would like to reiterate too that I certainly do not want to sully the relationship that has been built over many years with Bramham Football Club; I just feel it necessary to confirm all suspicions and explain to all what actually occurred; if anything for the young teenager who has unfortunately felt the full force of this situation in more ways than one!