Published: Friday, 22nd January, 2010 8:00am

Pars win Scottish Cup appeal

by Simon Harris

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DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC are back in the Scottish Cup after the club won their appeal against a ban imposed after the club fielded suspended Calum Woods as a substitute in their 7-1 fourth round win over Stenhousemuir.

As opposed to expulsion the SFA have ordered a replay at Stenhousemuir and the Pars will have to pay out a £21,000 fine and forfeit their award for the team's resounding win in the round.

The Scottish FA, who threw the Pars out of the tournament, have been reported as being "surprised" by the decision of the three-man appeals board with SFA chief exec Gordon Smith reported as saying, "We are surprised by the decision after what the Emergency Committee considered a number of serious infringements of the cup competition rules by Dunfermline Athletic.

The Pars were accused of further administrative errors, including submitting an inaccurate team line, altering a named substitute and not registering two outfield under-21 players.

But a senior four-man Pars delegation, featuring chairman John Yorkston, chief exec Bill Hodgins, director of football Jim Leishman and manager Jim McIntyre will have told the appeal that these errors were rectified 40 minutes before the tie.

The replay will be on Tuesday at Ochilview - with a 7.30pm kick off - with a fifth round clash at home to Celtic set to be played on the weekend of 5/6th February.

The Stenny match is pay at the gate and prices are £11 for adults and £6 concessions.

Leishman told the Press website, "We're delighted and relieved to still be in the cup and I can only apologise to the fans again that we were ever in this position.

"There was a lot of legal argument but we got a very fair hearing and our lawyers and legal team were excellent.

"Let's now go and play the game of football. We've got a big game tomorrow against Partick Thistle and then the cup match, the date of which we should find out today.

When told that the SFA were "surprised" that Pars had won their appeal, Leishman said, "We were surprised at the severity of the punishment in the first place and that's why we appealed."