EVESHAM United's youth team could host Crewe Alexandra in the FA Youth Cup second round after conquerors Shrewsbury Town got booted out for fielding an ineligible player.

The debacle has seen Shrews chief executive Brian Caldwell publicly slam the Football Association, accusing the governing body of lacking "honesty and integrity". 

Town have admitted to playing the as-yet-unnamed ineligible player in the 3-0 win at the Jubilee Stadium in round one on Wednesday, November 1.

Caldwell claimed Shrewsbury's youth staff had questioned whether the player could feature and received the green light but the club has still been expelled, subject to appeal.

“We played a player in the FA Youth Cup match last week against Evesham who was slightly over age," explained Caldwell.

“The player’s a third-year scholar and we have special dispensation for him to be a third-year scholar.

"He plays in the EFL Youth Alliance for our under-18 team and our academy checked with the FA whether he would also be eligible to play in the FA Youth Cup the day before the game.

“We explained that he was a third year scholar, we explained that he was a little bit over age and the advice we were given from the Competitions Department of the FA was that if he was eligible for the EFL Youth Alliance then he would be eligible for the FA Youth Cup.

“Having got that clarification, the player played in the 3-0 victory and since then we’ve had a charge.

"We put together evidence expecting common sense to prevail and a bit of honesty and integrity from the FA, which obviously hasn’t happened.

“The story seemed to change from people in the FA as to what actually happened.

"We all know what happened and we explained in a hearing (on Friday) that we did the right thing, that we went to the FA Competitions Department and we asked the right person as well to clarify whether the player was eligible.

“We’ve now got 20-odd under-18 players who are out of the competition through no fault of their own and in my opinion through no fault of ours either.

"We have been given the wrong information from the Competitions Department of the FA, who have now hidden behind their own rules and said they didn’t say this.”

Should Shrewsbury opt not to contest the decision or fail to get it overturned, Neil Hunt's young Robins will be reinstated.

The prospect of a plum tie in round three has already gone up in smoke, though.

Despite Premier League and Championship clubs entering, the winners of Evesham's scheduled match with Crewe will travel to Colchester United or Bishop's Stortford in the last 64.