SELBY Town have apologised for giving a trial to former York City forward Reece Thompson.

Thompson was sentenced to 40 months in prison last year after pleading guilty to damaging property, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The 26-year-old appeared as a trialist for Selby in Wednesday evening’s 5-3 pre-season defeat away to Tadcaster Albion at Ings Lane.

The decision was strongly criticised by York fans on social media, with Selby since confirming that Thompson will not be joining the club on a permanent basis.

A Selby statement read: “We took part in a pre-season friendly at which a decision was made to play a new trialist – Reece Thompson.

“We wish to make clear that when including this person in our squad we were not condoning his actions or making light of his prior conviction, we accept it was a mistake to give the player a trial and wholeheartedly apologise for any upset it has caused.

“As a community football club we pride ourselves on being family friendly and as a club we take this very seriously.

“In this case a serious error of judgement was made and once again, we can only apologise for our mistake and make clear that the player in question will not be joining our squad now or in the future.”

Thompson played 17 times for York between 2015 and 2016, scoring three goals.