Yeovil Town have appealed the red card shown to Alex Bradley in Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat at Aldershot Town and are hopeful he will return for this weekend’s visit from King’s Lynn.
Bradley was dismissed for a tackle from behind on Shots’ striker Harry Panayiotou after 55 minutes of the game in Hampshire, but boss Darren Sarll is hopeful the three-match ban will be overturned on appeal.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Sarll said: “We have appealed. We think the video footage is good enough to exonerate him. There was a similar tackle from an Aldershot player midway through the second half which is probably worse than Alex’s, so we will be saying that and hopefully we can get Alex in on Saturday.”
You can see for yourself with the match highlights – see here – on the club’s YouTube channel – the moment is at 2 minutes and 55 seconds in.
Sarll also revealed that some of his long list of injuries could return for the match at Huish Park.
He was without Luke Wilkinson, Max Hunt, Albi Skendi, Carl Dickinson, Jimmy Smith, Matt Worthington, Rhys Murphy and long-term absentee Josh Staunton at Aldershot.
But, the boss revealed that he was hopeful that a number of those missing in midweek would be available.
Sarll said: “I don’t think in an ideal world we would have them this weekend, but there are players that have been very forceful in saying they recognise the situation and want to help. They are putting themselves at risk for the benefit of the team, myself and the football club, so I am hopeful on a couple of them. I would rather not name them in case I set myself up, but I am hoping that some of them will be available where it is cameo roles or from the start.”
Midfielder Lawson D’Ath, who has been missing since January, made a welcome return as a second-half substitute at Aldershot and there was another appearance for under-18s midfielder, Toby Stephens.
On the subject of poor refereeing decisions, Sarll also revealed he had received an apology from the FA for mistake of not giving a penalty for a foul on striker Reuben Reid in the 3-0 home defeat to Halifax Town.
With the Glovers’ trailing 1-0 in the 83rd minute, Reid was pulled back in the box by visiting defender Niall Maher, but referee Elliot Swallow waved the appeals away and the visitors broke away to get a second moments later.
Sarll said: “I’ve had another email today saying (the referee) got it wrong again with Reuben’s penalty against Halifax. That stops them getting the second goal and potentially brings us back to 1-1. I guess there are 14 points of mistakes we’ve not got from referees this season.”
One person who won’t be surprised is Halifax manager Pete Wild who admitted after the game that it was “definitely a pen.”