Irish Cup: Ballymena-Newry semi-final date pushed back subject to Glentoran appeal
- Published
The Irish FA ruled that Crowe (centre) hadn't served a three-man ban which he picked up while playing for the club's reserves
The date of the Irish Cup semi-final between Ballymena United and Newry City has been pushed back by 11 days to the provisional date of Wednesday 13 April.
Originally scheduled to be played on Saturday 2 April at Mourneview Park, the new date is subject to an appeal from Glentoran.
It is believed the Irish FA communicated the news to the three clubs involved on Friday.
Ballymena announced news of the fixture change on their social media channels.
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The Glens beat Newry City in the quarter-finals and were due to play Ballymena in the last-four before they were thrown out of the competition after the Irish FA ruled they played ineligible Joe Crowe in the win over Newry.
An Irish FA statement said that it had taken the decision to expel the Glens "following a protest by Newry City".
The Glens subsequently appealed their expulsion last week and it is that move which has led to the postponement of the semi-final.
Crusaders and Cliftonville will contest the other Irish Cup last-four tie on 1 April, which will be streamed live on the BBC Sport NI website.
In the days after their 1-0 quarter-final win over Newry and after it emerged that Crowe may have been ineligible, Glens manager Mick McDermott claimed that the online Comet system used for registering players and listing players for each match is "not fit for purpose"..
He said that the online application process should have made he and his staff aware before the quarter final that Crowe was suspended, but that it did not. Furthermore, he said that Crowe was still deemed eligible by Comet for a league game at The Oval, although he was not selected.
