Dandy Town and Somerset Eagles will get a chance to battle anew as Bermuda Football Association bosses confirmed yesterday that Sunday?s abandoned match would be replayed.

Referee Anthony Mouchette was forced to halt the Premier Division clash on the half-hour mark after an off-the-ball incident left Town?s Khano Smith floored in the centre circle.

The absence of official linesman left the experienced referee unable to make an informed decision on how to proceed and, in fear of rising tempers getting out of hand, he chose to abandon the match with the scores tied at 1-1.

BFA General Secretary David Sabir yesterday confirmed the match would be re-arranged, for a date to be decided this week, and backed Mouchette?s decision to start the game despite being the only registered match official.

?The committee has yet to see the referee?s report so it would be unwise of me to comment at this stage about the incident itself, but I can confirm that the match will definitely be replayed,? he told

?A decision about when and where and so on will be made by the committee and announced at the appropriate time.?

But Sabir was keen to stand by his referee, who was backed into a corner by his lack of assistant referees ? and therefore qualified help out on the field.

?He was absolutely right to start the match,? continued Sabir.

?The objective is always to get the game played where it is possible to do so, and it is at the referee?s discretion. He made the right decision to start the game and also the right decision to abandon it when he couldn?t be sure of exactly what had taken place.

?There is an acute shortage of match officials at the moment due to a number of our people being off the Island. This leads to volunteers or spectators having to help out.

?It is not an ideal situation but one we are having to cope with as best we can.

?In any sport, it is always preferable to have the full complement of officials ? but at the moment that is not always possible.?

In Saturday?s Commercial League, just referees are appointed to games, leaving volunteers to help out where available as assistants.

But for Sundays? Premier and Division One games, there are three officials appointed to deal with the higher level of competitiveness and importance of the matches.