A six-man Scottish Football Association emergency committee yesterday unanimously decide to expel the Pars from this season's tournament for "a number of breaches" of competition rules in Saturday's fourth-round thrashing of Stenhousemuir.

The verdict denied the Irn-Bru First Division club a lucrative potential fifth-round tie against Celtic, who are now set to travel to Stenny if they beat Morton.

The Pars were expected to face punishment for fielding an ineligible player in the 7-1 victory at East End Park, with the SFA having previously ordered matches to be replayed for similar offences.

But the club were found guilty of more than just introducing the suspended Calum Woods from the bench on Saturday.

Yet Dunfermline said in a statement: "DAFC would, first and foremost, sincerely apologise to all their fans for this situation.

"DAFC do believe however, that being expelled from The Active Nation Scottish Cup is excessive and do intend to appeal the SFA decision."

As well as the Woods blunder, the club made administrative errors which stemmed from their failure to submit a teamsheet that included the mandatory two under-21 players.

They also neglected to specify the ages of those on their teamsheet, another breach of the rules.

When it was pointed out to them prior to kick-off they only had one under-21 player in their squad, they sought to replace one of their substitutes.

However, any changes made to a teamsheet less than a hour before kick-off must result in that club's quota of substitutes being reduced.

Dunfermline did not do this, the last of a series of blunders which led to yesterday's verdict.

The SFA said Dunfermline "admitted liability" in failing to acknowledge the suspension of Woods, whose ban carried over from last season's semi-final against Falkirk.

It was pointed out the club had received copies of the SFA's official suspension list 26 times since, including details of Woods' suspension on each occasion.

SFA chief executive Gordon Smith said: "While it is unfortunate that Dunfermline Athletic will no longer be participating in the Active Nation Scottish Cup, the emergency committee were left with no alternative after it emerged the club had breached several of the cup competition rules.

"The integrity of the Active Nation Scottish Cup was paramount in the decision-making process."

Brechin were ejected from the Scottish Cup in 2008 after using two ineligible players in a victory over Hamilton.

The SFA initially ordered a replay and fined Brechin £10,000 when it was thought only one ineligible player had been fielded.

But the club were expelled once it emerged a second such player had also been used.

In 2006, St Mirren were fined £25,000 for breaching the under-21 rule in a cup win over Spartans.

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Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston told the Scottish Sun: "As far as the completion of the teamsheets, we were ruled to be in breach of regulations despite the problem being rectified 40 minutes prior to kick-off to the satisfaction of the referee and Stenhousemuir.

"When we heard the SFA verdict we were shellshocked. Our chief executive Bill Hodgins and director of football Jim Leishman couldn't believe it - nor could I.

"We're not talking here about some of the bigger things that have happened in the past. We're talking about an honest admin error."

Yorkston believes the Pars could miss out on up to £250,000 for a televised tie against Celtic.

He added: "Regardless of the appeal being successful or not, I have to take a serious look at all of this. Appropriate action will be taken.

"There's no attempt at a cover-up. We did make mistakes and they shouldn't have happened."