FA break Havant hearts and prevent Justin Gregory from playing at Anfield

The Havant and Waterlooville full-back was due to serve a one-match ban after picking up five bookings this season, but looked set to be available for the Liverpool FA Cup fourth round tie after Havant re-arranged a league match at Thurrock tonight.

But that was before the FA got wind of the Hawks' plans.

Gregory said: "A reporter rang me on Thursday and said: 'Havant have put a game on to clear your suspension'. But as far as I was concerned it was being put on just clear the backlog. I said: 'You can suggest things like that. But I'd just be happy if the game goes forward'."

"If a few of them (the FA) played football," he added. "They would know how important this cup tie is for a certain player. It's a dream come true. It feels like they can bully this club because it's in the Conference South.

"If it was Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourninho I'm sure this wouldn't have happened. I'm really disappointed in the outcome and hopefully the FA can put their heads together and overturn the ruling."

FA spokesman Mark Cooper said: "What Havant and Waterlooville have done is specifically arranged this match against Thurrock for the reason of enabling Justin Gregory to serve his suspension and therefore allow him to play against Liverpool.

"The club have admitted this. The club secretary, who came to our meeting yesterday, admitted that this was the specific reason they have arranged the Thurrock fixture.

"The club had done various interviews in the media talking about how they were planning to do this for this specific reason. We cannot turn a blind eye, if something comes to our attention we're going to look at it. We had a regulatory commission yesterday made up of four people and it was a unanimous decision - they saw this as an abuse of the system and therefore they said that his match should not count towards his [Gregory's] suspension."

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Gregory added: "It's a nightmare, but there's not much I can do about it. The FA are pretty archaic if you ask me.

"I've written a few emails to officials to explain the situation, but I don't remember them going back on a decision too many times, so I guess I just have to live with it.

"I did an interview saying I was happy there was a league game taking place so my suspension would be cleared, but that was taken out of context.

"The FA officials obviously saw that and think the game has been specifically arranged. I'm absolutely gutted, but you also have to keep things in perspective. Nobody died and it gives someone else the chance to play at Anfield."

Brock added: "At the end of the day, rules are rules and if it wasn't for the Liverpool game being so high-profile, no-one would have complained with the FA's decision. Having said that, it's tough to take.

"Why would they want to deny someone their dream to play at Anfield? It's horrendous. I'm extremely disappointed for the club and for Justin."

"The commission, therefore, felt that the suspension should stand as originally intended and that Havant and Waterlooville's match against Thurrock would not count towards the completion of the suspension."

Punished for being too honest. You don't often hear of that in modern football. Shame for Gregory. Shame on the FA.