AN EMERGENCY meeting has been called by Herefordshire FA after a shortage of referees led to most of the county’s Premier Division matches left without an official.

Ledbury Town made the long trip across the county to Kington Town last weekend only for the game to be abandoned due to no official being available.

However a statement from the HFA says that teams are expected to fulfil their fixtures when no referee has been appointed to the matches.

Holme Lacy’s clash with Tenbury Town, Wellington Reserves’ meeting with Fownhope and Hinton’s battle against Westfields Reserves were all completed without a referee last Saturday.

A plan to resolve the issue could see more mid-week matches played on the county’s floodlight

pitches.

“As we are all aware there is currently a severe shortage of available referees,” said the Herefordshire FA in a statement.

“This has resulted in a number of County League matches being left without a match official on

Saturdays.

“Adult referees are proving particularly difficult to recruit and retain.

“Our next referee’s course is set up and ready to go and we would like the County League clubs and

individuals to help promote this course and recruit the next batch of senior referees.

“As part of this we will be rewarding clubs who “Refer a Ref ” and successfully recommend participants for the FA Referees Course. Clubs will receive £100 for Referring a Ref.

“A work group of HFA Committee members will be having an emergency meeting this week to outline further resolutions to the current situation.

“Plans include utilising the numerous floodlit pitches within Herefordshire to spread fixtures throughout the week.

We will also be working with our neighbouring county FAs to increase the pool of referees for Saturday football in Herefordshire.”

Ledbury Town Reserves overcame Hereford Lads Club Reserves with a 4-1 win in the opening round of the Herefordshire FA Junior Cup.

Goals from Sam Branch and Mark Taylor gave the visitors a 2-1 lead at half-time before Kieran Loveridge and Josh Burns struck.

Saturday's sees Nick Blakeway’s side visit Shobdon in Division One (2.30pm) and Ledbury’s first-team host Westfields Reserves in the first round of the Herefordshire FA Charity Bowl (2pm).