THE LOCAL FA Women’s Premier League Cup derby between Swindon Spitfires and Swindon Town on Sunday has been cancelled.

Spitfires have had to forfeit the fixture as they have been left with only eight available players due to injury and absence.

Anna Margetts, Ria Salleh, Emma Skinner and Katie Wadey are all injured. With Sue Berry, Jessica Dent, Jennifer Gray, Hannah Gulliver, Jennifer Jones, Victoria Parry, Haley Shipp and Emily Sparks away for the Bank Holiday weekend, The Elms-based side were left with no choice but to pull out, with the league unwilling to rearrange the fixture.

Spitfires did ask the FAWPL if they could move the game to Wednesday evening, when they are due to meet Town Ladies in a South West Division One clash.

In their official response the FAWPL said: “While the FAWPL sympathises with your position, as per the league rules we expect the game to go head, even if only with eight players.”

That decision disappointed Spitfires, who lost their second league game 2-0 to Maidenhead United last weekend.

“We will be calling the game off. We have only got eight players available and the league won’t budge, they won’t postpone,” said Spitfires secretary Jacqui Turner.

“We made the decision to protect the players we have left to concentrate on our league campaign.

“We asked whether we could shift the game to Wednesday, when were due to play them in the league, but they said no.

“We can’t send out eight players, they would get crucified.

“We even said to the league ‘we want to put on a good showing, it’s our local derby, we’ll have a big crowd to watch us, it benefits nobody playing a game like that’. They wouldn’t budge.”

Town Ladies assistant Kim Reeves, who was set to take charge of the game in the absence of regular boss Steve Robertson, was equally disappointed.

Reeves and her side were anticipating a well-supported local derby, but will now have to wait until Wednesday’s league meeting to lock horns.

“We were all geared up and ready for Sunday, but such is football. We’ll alter our plans slightly and go again for Wednesday,” said Reeves.

“It is shame because there would have been quite a big crowd out there with people coming to watch a local derby. I think it would have got quite a bit of coverage as well.”

Spitfires’ predicament means Town get a free pass into the next round of the League Cup. Which is a bonus for Robertson’s side in terms of saving their legs for latter rounds, but Reeves insists she would rather her players had earned their progress on the pitch.

“For us it means we’re into the next round of the cup and we can focus on the league game this Wednesday, which will go ahead as planned,” she added.

“We’d have preferred to get through to the next round of the cup on merit, but we’re in the draw and that’s the main thing.”