A pair of South West District league reserves footballers have been handed heavy suspensions for umpire abuse as the competition looks to stamp out poor treatment of officials.
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Heywood's Aaron Morgan will spend 12 weeks on the sidelines after sustained abuse towards an official in a reserves clash with Branxholme/Wallacedale on Saturday, July 13.
The Standard understands Morgan was abusive towards the umpire and received a yellow card. The abuse persisted and he received a red card and still continued afterwards.
Because of the seriousness of the offence the league referred it to an independent tribunal, who handed down the hefty suspension in his absence.
Just a couple of weeks earlier, an incident occurred which saw Cavendish player Nick McMahon whacked with a 10-week suspension for umpire abuse.
The Standard understands McMahon removed his jumper and threw it in an umpire's face during a reserves fixture against Dartmoor on June 29.
Again, the matter was referred to the independent tribunal, who decided the penalty.