BARNSLEY’S miserable midweek continues, as they have been kicked out of the FA Cup.

Still licking their wounds from Tuesday night’s 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the Bantams in the Bristol Steet Motors Trophy, a chastening experience for some of their youngsters, the Tykes received even worse news yesterday.

Despite that defeat at Valley Parade, Barnsley still progressed in that competition after coming second in their group, but their FA Cup journey will go no further, after the FA found them guilty of fielding an ineligible player.

They had not registered forward Aiden Marsh, who also played against the Bantams on Tuesday night, in time to face Horsham for their FA Cup first-round replay.

Marsh had been on loan at York City when the initial first-round tie between Barnsley and Horsham was played on November 3.

That game finished 3-3 at Oakwell, with the replay in West Sussex coming 11 days later, when the Tykes had initially been pencilled in to visit the Bantams in the EFL Trophy.

Marsh had returned to his parent club by November 14, so started the game at Horsham, which Barnsley won 3-0.

But under the Football Assocation’s rules, a player can only take part in an FA Cup replay if they were eligible for the initial tie.

As Marsh was playing for York at the time of the initial game, he should not have taken part in the replay.

But he did just that, with the FA coming down hard on Barnsley as a result.

Horsham have been reinstated, so will take on Sutton in round two.

A sheepish Barnsley said in a club statement: "We would like to apologise to our fans, players and staff for this regrettable error.

"This mistake - although unintentional - falls way below the high standards we set at this club and is simply not what you deserve.

"We have already conducted a full internal investigation and have subsequently put safeguards in place to ensure this will never happen again."

Barnsley do have the right to appeal, but have already confirm that they accept the decision.