David Goodwillie has been binned by English minnows Radcliffe FC following a furious backlash over his appearance on Tuesday night.
The striker left Raith Rovers in September without playing a game for the Fifers due to outrage at his signing with Goodwillie deemed a rapist by a civil court in 2017. The Rovers women's team cut all ties with the club, with club sponsor Val McDermid, fans, Rape Crisis Scotland and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon among an extensive list of critics.
There was shock when Goodwillie netted a hat-trick for English seventh tier side Radcliffe, based in Greater Manchester, and scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Belper Town with Sky Sports reporting he had signed a short-term deal. But the club have now released a statement saying: "We can confirm that David Goodwillie has left the club. As a club we have always been about second chances and have been a part of many players and staff members rehabilitation along that journey, we've always given people a chance to improve their life and found support in this endeavour.
“When the club were presented with David Goodwillie that same logic was applied, but in this case it's clear that was a significant misstep and our due diligence should have been of a much higher standard. We can vouch for all the people at the Club involved in this signing did so out of the desire to do a good thing for an individual with an admittedly tainted past as we have done so successfully before but this was a bridge too far.
"This move came about very quickly, with clearance only granted extremely late leaving us in a position where our media volunteers were unable to release details prior to team sheets being produced - while regrettable this was also unavoidable.”
Follow Record Sport on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond. You can also follow our dedicated Rangers and Celtic podcast pages and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season.
