A leading Sydenhams Wessex League official says they have done everything possible to ease Winchester City's passage through to the FA Vase final.

City, wading knee-deep through a fixture backlog, are furious that the league turned down their request to extend the season beyond April 24 to help them in their build-up to the May 16 showdown with AFC Sudbury at Birmingham City.

Winchester's director of football David Malone and team manager Neil Hards have branded the situation "ludicrous" and Malone said in Monday's Daily Echo: "The professionals would just not put up with the fixture list we've had.

"If we win the Vase it would be a great boost for Wessex League football, but the Wessex League have done nothing to help us.

"It's ridiculous that we have to finish our season by April 24."

Several Wessex managers have come out in support of Winchester's plight and Alex Pike, who led Wimborne Town to Vase glory in 1992, said recently: "If my memory serves me correctly, the Wessex League extended our season by two weeks just to help us in the FA Vase, but it doesn't look like Winchester City have got that luxury."

But Denis Emery, the SWL registration secretary, strongly refutes any suggestion that the league have deliberately put a spoke in Winchester's wheel.

He said: "As a member of the Sydenhams Wessex League management committee, I would like to reply to comments made in the local press that the league has not helped Wessex League clubs that have been very successful in their cup runs.

"The fixtures secretary has helped all teams by not issuing midweek fixtures throughout the FA Vase runs.

"This, I believe, has helped our clubs reaching the later stages of the FA Vase. This of course means that fixtures pile up and there are a lot of games at the end of the season.

"There were 21 other teams in the Wessex League to consider when an extension was requested."