FALMOUTH Town manager Andrew Westgarth has expressed his disappointment at the possibility of cup competitions being scrapped next season.

In a meeting with leagues at steps five and six of the English National League System on Friday, the FA suggested that league and county cups could be sacrificed to give clubs the best chance of completing all league fixtures.

The FA proposed four scenarios for the start of the 2020/21 season and suggested that a September of October start is the most likely at this stage, with league and county cups to be culled for one season to compensate for the later start to the campaign.

This would see each of the Cornwall Senior Cup, Cornwall Charity Cup and Walter C Parson League Cup being scrapped for a season – unless organisers can find a way to include it in the revised schedule.

The FA Vase is also in doubt, although it is believed that the FA intends to play the competition, albeit with a tighter schedule.

It has come as a disappointment to Westgarth, whose Town team have excelled in cups over the past few seasons, having won both the League Cup and Senior Cup in the last two years.

“It’s disappointing really if that is the outcome,” said Westgarth. “I don’t think it’s just us that would be disappointed with that, because the idea of a cup is to keep people’s seasons alive who aren’t generally going to win the league.

“You look at Wendron when they had that really good run in the cup and got to the semi-final [in 2019], it’s not just going to be us that’s affected by it, it’s everyone really which is a shame.

"But it is what it is and there’s nothing I can do about that.”

One cup that Town will hope to compete in is the 2019/20 edition of the League Cup, with Town having booked their place in the semi-finals of the competition with a 3-2 victory at home to St Blazey in their final match of the season on March 11.

South West Peninsula League secretary Phil Hiscox is due to have contacted all five clubs still standing in last season’s competition this week to gauge their thoughts on playing the tournament to a finish at some point, potentially before the new season starts.

“I’ve got no problem with it,” said Westgarth. “Obviously, we’d need to know the Ts and Cs of it in the sense of how it’s going to work, because [will players still be] cup-tied or if any of those rules are going to come into it. I think the normal rules are you have to have played five games before you have to play in the semi-final.

“I don’t know if all of those rules are going to be in place or whether it’d be a case of, if you sign for this season you can play in the cup.

“I think we will accept it, but it would be interesting to see what those rules are.”