Paget Community Club have appealed against Bermuda Football Association?s ruling to boot the First Division club out of the FA Cup as well as dock them six league points for fielding an ineligible player.

While Lions coach Brian (Bulla) Anderson claimed responsibility yesterday for the oversight, the former PHC Zebras, Devonshire Cougars and Bermuda international midfielder took a swipe at match officials, criticising them for not detecting that one of his player?s registration cards had expired prior to matches ? on three separate occasions.

Paget forfeited league wins over Prospect and Hamilton Parish on October 3 and November 7 and were also booted out of the FA Cup after a courageous comeback against Wolves on November 14 when it was discovered the BFA registration card of Jerome Knights had expired.

Wolves will now meet Premier Division club Somerset Trojans in the second round of the FA Cup this Sunday instead of Lions whose promotion hopes were also dented following last week?s BFA ruling.

Prior to being deducted the points, Lions were third in the First Division standings and in position to lay claim to a berth in the Champions Cup due to commence next Tuesday night at Devonshire Recreation Club.

?It was a mistake on my part the first time . . . but it is also their (match officials) job to check players? cards before matches,? said Anderson.

?Nobody did this the first, second or third time and it was an honest mistake and I don?t think we should be penalised for all three matches. I think we should forfeit the first match (against Prospect) and then go forward from there because this is not right.?

After holding a special meeting on Sunday, Paget officials made the decision to appeal on the grounds ?the referee did not do his job?.

Anderson added: ?It was not intentional and all of the referees can testify that I always hand my team-sheet in early. Now if we were trying to hide something then why would we hand in the team-sheet ahead of time?

?If we wanted to hide something then all we had to do was hand the team-sheet in at the latest moment so that referee would not have ample time to check it.?

According to a letter the BFA sent out to affiliates, titled Match Day Procedures and dated October 15, paragraph six clearly states: ?Match officials are instructed to check all participating player cards in the presence of the players listed on the team-sheet. The purpose of this is to ensure that the player card submitted matches the actual player participating in the game.

?Match officials must also confirm that the name on the team-sheet is the same as the name on the player registration card.

?The match official must also confirm on the player?s registration card that they are eligible to play in the respective division and the referee must also check the expiration date on the cards and inform the team officials in cases where the card has expired.?

Officials failed on three occasions to detect Knight?s card had expired ? two months into the 2004-05 season.

Lions are the third club this season to be penalised for fielding ineligible players.

Premier Division club Somerset Eagles were booted out of the Martonmere Cup semi-final in October after it was discovered one of their players had played in a previous round of the competition with an invalid registration card while Wolves were also penalised for committing the same offence against Hamilton Parish. Wolves thrashed Parish 18-1 but later had to hand Peppers the points.

?It is stipulated the referee is supposed to inform team officials if a player is ineligible to play . . . and the referees did not do this,? Anderson continued. ?I admit my mistake but at the same time the referees also made a mistake and did not do their job. Had they in fact done their job, then the matter would not have gone this far.

?So how can you put the blame totally on us if they (referees) aren?t doing their job? I think we should only be penalised once for an error on my part. But we are being penalised for the whole three times when in fact the referees did not do their job. It should have been detected.

?This is very disheartening to the team because they have worked hard but I told them ?it?s time for them to show some character and fight back?.?

Bermuda Referees? Association (BRA) secretary Cornell Castle commented: ?We have already raised this issue (during meetings) and it is something that we have asked our officials to be more conscious of.

?If we find a player?s card has expired we then inform the respective teams and we have asked members to scrutinise the cards on match day.?