Raith Rovers manager John McGlynn has asked for a chance to turn things around after signing Clyde's David Goodwillie.
The Championship club signed the forward on transfer deadline day last month and it has brought widespread condemnation.
Goodwillie was declared a rapist after being found guilty in a civil court and ordered, with former team-mate David Robertson, to pay £100,000 in compensation to the victim of the 2011 attack.
Rovers refused to put anyone up for press after last weekend's draw with Hamilton, off the back of key sponsors pulling the plug and club personnel walking out.
Now ahead of their Scottish Cup tie with Celtic, McGlynn says he wants the chance to fix things after calls for him and members of the Stark's Park board to resign after hiring Clyde's talisman, who netted over 95 times for the Bully Wee.
He said: "It’s been really difficult for everyone involved and we apologise enormously for the distress that we’ve brought to our fans, our sponsors – anyone hurt in any way at all. It was never our intention to do that.
"I’ve been at the football club for the best part of nine years in two separate occasions and there is no way that I would have wanted to have brought the last 10 days on the football club.
"We’ve been on the front page for the wrong reasons rather than the back page. We apologise for bringing our football club and our supporters into the situation that we find ourselves in.
"From a football point of view, I’m tasked with trying to get us to the league above if that’s at all possible. We’ve had a situation where we didn’t have anyone in the striking department scoring many goals.
"So from a football point of view, to be able to get the top goal scorer in Scotland – we felt that was something we should pursue. There is no doubt that David scores goals.
"We just completely underestimated the feeling and the depth of the feeling that has come from that signing. If we could turn the clock back, we’d do it in a minute. Everyone has lost here, there are no winners in this.
"But from a football point of view, our aim maybe took over from the other side, which is the non-footballing side. We have made an error. Some errors are bigger than others and it was an enormous error.
"There’s nothing wrong with ambition but we’ve obviously hurt a lot of people and we apologise to each and every one of them. We hope in time we can rectify the situation, build some bridges and get people back here.
"I have been here for the best part of nine years over two periods. I love the football club, I love working here, I’ve had to consider an awful lot over the last ten days.
"But at the same time I think there is an awful lot of good work being done here at Raith Rovers. And I would like the opportunity to right the wrongs."
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