Banbury United have been thrown out of this year's FA Cup for fielding an ineligible player in an earlier round of the competition.

The club had appealed against a decision by the FA ordering Banbury to postpone Saturday's first preliminary round tie with Wealdstone, while they investigated claims that striker Ben Milner played in United's 4-0 win over Ware in the preliminary round of this season's competition.

But yesterday, after an hour-long hearing at Lancaster Gate, a three-man panel of the special challenge cup sub-committee rejected their appeal that neither the club nor Milner knew he was suspended.

Banbury stood to get a £7,500 windfall had they beaten Saturday's opponents.

Player-manager Kevin Brock, who travelled down with club secretary Barry Worsley to fight the charge, said: "We had a good hearing from the FA. We put over our side of events, but at the end of the day Ben was suspended and shouldn't have been playing.

"It has left me a little bit numb. The biggest disappointment is that we are out of the FA Cup. This year, with the money you can get, it would have been helpful particularly as we spent a lot on improving the ground.

"We had a meeting with the players on Thursday and they were all right behind Ben."