Radcliffe FC have released David Goodwillie just one day after the striker signed.
The former Dundee United attacker scored a hat-trick for the English seventh tier side last night.
The non-league team beat Belper Town 4-2 on Tuesday evening, with Goodwillie a surprise scorer.
Prior to some of the club's goal tweets on social media, there had been no public announcement of the 33-year-old joining Radcliffe.
In a statement this morning, they say that was regrettable but unavoidable due to the swift nature of when they received clearance of Goodwillie's signing.
The Scot - who was ruled a rapist by a civil court in 2017 - has now left the club after only one day, with the English side admitting their mistake over the controversial signing.
A Radcliffe statement reads: "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.
"From the board down to the management team, who we backed, and have always backed on playing decisions - it's clear that as a whole we got this wrong. The focus was misplaced and as a growing community club we realise that our impacts are also more widely felt too.
"We have always strived to be a source of pride to our town with good and honest intentions, and we think we have made a significant positive impact for our town over the last 6 years both on and off the field and we sincerely apologise to everyone connected with the club and the community - this is a mistake that will never happen again."
