SPOT VALLEY, St James — Spot Valley High have escaped major punishment due to a “technicality”, after they subsequently used a player who was red-carded, despite him not missing a game.

Instead of losing points from six subsequent games in which the player, Courtney Chisholm, had participated, Spot Valley will instead lose two points from a their opening Zone C 3-3 draw against Herbert Morrison Technical, as they used players who did not have ISSA identification cards.

George Forbes, ISSA’s competitions officer, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that Spot Valley High had got off on a “technicality”, explaining that the referee’s report did not cite that the visitors had “refused to continue playing”.

ISSA had referred that case to both the Jamaica Football Federation and the Caribbean Football Union for clarification before taking a decision.

As a result of them losing the points, three teams are now locked in a dog fight for the two automatic spots to the inter-zone round with a fourth, William Knibb, having a long shot, but who will have to depend on other results to go their way.

Cedric Titus lead with 18 points, with a game against Herbert Morrison Technical (15 points) today that they must get at least a point from if they are to secure their place in the inter-zone round.

Herbert Morrison are in a must-win situation, while Spot Valley, who are on 14 points, play an improving William Knibb at home today and then will face Holland High in the rescheduled game, most likely on Monday.

In their opening game against Herbert Morrison, Chisholm had scored twice in the high-scoring draw, but went from hero to zero late in the game after picking up a second yellow card, and was sent off.

Chisholm would have missed the next game at Holland High, but the game was called off after about five minutes because the home team had not put in sufficient uniformed security.

Chisholm was then used in all of Spot Valley’s subsequent games and is their leading scorer with six goals.