Penicuik Athletic are extremely disappointed to have been informed that our match against Hill of Beath Hawthorn on Tuesday 30 April has been annulled and ordered to be replayed.
This stems from the fact that during the match we used an additional sixth substitute. The club wishes to state that the facts surrounding this were as follows:
We made a double substitution in the 60th minute
We made a third substitution in the 73rd minute
We scored a goal in the 77th minute, whilst we were in the process of preparing a double substitution.
Following the restart of play, one of our players collapsed on the pitch. His health became our top priority.
Whilst he was being treated, our manager asked the assistant referee how many substitutions he still had at which point the assistant told him he could still make three.
As it became clear the player would not be able to continue, we prepared to make a triple substitution to also replace the player.
At no point during the process did any of the match officials inform our manager or any of our coaching staff that we were unable to make these substitutions.
Whilst the substitutions were being carried out, the referee clarified the substitutions with his assistant and both were happy to proceed.
Also during this time whilst the substitutions were being carried out, our secretary contacted our president, who was watching the match beside the dugout, to inform him of the error and try to stop it happening.
However before the message could be relayed to our manager, play had resumed.
At the earliest available opportunity during the match, our secretary informed one of the assistant referees of the error.
We wish to clarify that at no point did Penicuik Athletic knowingly carry out this substitution to gain an unfair advantage. We also sought to highlight it to the officials at the earliest possible opportunity.
Our secretary and manager met the match officials and members of the Hill of Beath coaching staff in the officials room after the match, where the match officials confirmed that they had no recorded the previous substitutions correctly and had miscalculated the substitutions left. Again, we wish to clarify that the match officials took full responsibility as sole arbiters of the match for the error. Before exiting the room, our manager apologised to the Hill of Beath coaching staff on behalf of the club, which was accepted. We as a club also accepted the match officials apologies and accepted it was a genuine human error.
We are therefore extremely disappointed that our players, management team and supporters are now being punished due to an admitted error by the match officials.
The match report was submitted to the SFA and the East of Scotland FA on Wednesday, with the clubs involved not contacted until Friday to ask for clarification on the events of Tuesday night. Our statements were submitted within the time frame requested.
We received notification this afternoon of the decision of the East of Scotland board and have since engaged in dialogue with them about our options. However given that this decision has only been shared between ourselves, Hill of Beath and the East of Scotland board, we are extremely disappointed to see this decision being discussed on social media and online message boards given neither club have commented publicly on the decision and neither have the East of Scotland board.
We will continue to explore every option available to us, and will update our supporters as and when we have an update to provide.
The club will make no further comment on this matter at this time.
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