WINCHESTER City secretary John Moody is willing to quit as chairman of the Puma Engineering Hampshire Premier League (PEHPL) and stand up to the clubs who are threatening to withdraw from the Southampton Senior Cup and place the future of the century-old competition in jeopardy.

Moody, a life vice-president of the both the Hampshire and the Southampton FAs, says he is “appalled” by the conduct of City’s fellow quarter-finalists who met at the Stoneham Arms on Tuesday to discuss a possible mass withdrawal.

The upshot of the meeting was that unless the SFA formally request that Winchester withdraw, they will potentially pull out of the competition and forward a recommendation to June’s Hampshire Premier League AGM to boycott any future competitions.

“I think it’s appalling that they should threaten this action and that we (Winchester) weren’t even given the courtesy of attending Tuesday’s meeting.

We’ve done nothing wrong and yet we’ve been tried in our absence,” said Moody.

“In my opinion the SFA can’t have clubs telling them who will or will not play in an SFA competition.

“If those clubs don’t hold the competition in enough esteem to want to get to the final, then I think that’s a really poor show.

“It’s sportsmanship of the poorest level and they ought to be rapped over the knuckles for making this ultimatum.”

“What people forget is that we played in the very first final in 1908 whereas most of these ‘Johnny-come-lately’ clubs have only been in it a handful of years.

“Now we’ve got an element who don’t want to play against clubs with floodlights.”

For full story see today's Daily Echo.