Settle United’s joy at reaching the semi-finals of the West Riding County Cup was shattered when they were expelled from the competition.

The West Riding County FA ruled last week that striker John Beckwith, scorer of one of the goals in their 3-2 win over West Yorkshire League side Oxenhope Rec, was ineligible.

But now the Mastab’s Craven League Premier Division side have lodged an appeal against the decision which has seen Oxenhope be reinstated in the competition to face Salts at Woodlesford on April 2

Beckwith, who had netted a hat-trick in Settle’s win over Rimington in the previous round, also plays for Barnoldswick Town and had appeared twice for them in the North West Counties League Premier Division in the 28 days prior to the cup tie.

He has played 15 times for Barnoldswick and just three times for Settle – meaning he had not played in the required 75 per cent of their games.

Settle secretary, Luca Caggiano, lodged their appeal on Tuesday. He said: “We were not aware at the time that John Beckwith was ineligible.

“We accept now that he hadn’t played enough games but we are unhappy about the way the protest was made,” he said.

“We believed John Beckwith was ok to play having featured in the previous round. We asked the West Riding FA to consider all the games we had called off over the Christmas period which would have increased his number of appearances, but they said no.

“Oxenhope did their homework and were aware of the situation regarding John Beckwith’s eligibility, but they did not say anything until after the match.

“We feel this is against the spirit of the game. They could have protested once they saw his name on the team sheet. If the issue had been raised at the time we would have removed him from the team.

“This is all very disappointing. After winning the West Riding County Trophy last season we would have loved to have gone on to try and win the County Cup this time.

“We didn’t do our homework but it would appear that Oxenhope did theirs. We have made our appeal and will await the outcome.”