WILTSHIRE FA officials have refused to apologise for a blunder that Corsham Town claim could have cost them thousands of pounds.

Corsham wrote to county officials after it was revealed they had been wrongly denied the use of two of their players in the FA Vase 2-1 defeat at Backwell in October.

At the time county officials told the club Scott Lye and Jamie Lyons had to play for the county youth team instead of their club.

But rule 10 in the membership rules for the county FA, on page 83 of the Wiltshire FA handbook, states the FA Vase has priority over county matches.

The Wiltshire FA is now saying the confusion is all down to a "mis-print" and that what they told Corsham was in line with FA rules.

Backwell went on to reach the last 32 of the competition, earning about £4,000, and leaving Corsham wondering what might have been.

Corsham chairman Colin Hudd, said: "Because the county handbooks were not out until late we were only able to see the rule after the match had been played.

"If we had been allowed Scott and Jamie we could have gone down and got a draw or even beaten Backwell. We will never know what would have happened, but we definitely would have had a stronger side.

"Backwell probably got another £4,000 pounds at least out of that which is very good money for a club of our size."

After waiting over a month for a reply, Corsham received a letter from the FA but were disappointed to see there was no apology.

Hudd said: "I don't see how they could argue with the fact we were entitled to play Jamie and Scott.

"That is what is written in their own rulebook so that is what we play to.

'I wrote asking for an explanation but we did not really get one. At the end of the day I think they were out of order.

"I don't think the handbook was checked by the FA and as a consequence we were incorrectly robbed of our players.

"It is embarrassing for them and I think that is why they won't apologise because then they would be accepting they were wrong."

Wiltshire FA secretary Mike Benson put the mix up down to an error in this year's handbook.

He said: "I am aware what the handbook says, but it is wrong. There was mis-print in the book, which has now been sorted for next season."