Sunderland Appeal Sessegnon Dismissal

Sunderland Head Coach Paolo Di Canio has launched an appeal to the FA to rescind the red card shown to star striker Stephane Sessegnon during last night's 6-1 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa.

With 70 minutes on the clock the Beninese forward put in a challenge on Frenchman Yacuba Sylla which saw referee Lee Probert immediately brandish the red card to a dismayed Sessegnon.

Paolo Di Canio told the club's official website today that they will appeal the decision;

There was not a straight leg... it is not a bad challenge.

We saw the clip straight away in the dressing room. There was no intention to damage the opponent, so we are going to appeal.

It's now being widely reported that the FA have received Sunderland's appeal and will hear it out tomorrow with a verdict to follow quite swiftly. Having viewed it a number of times now it would seem unlikely that the card will be rescinded. Whilst it wasn't meaty or intentional, and after a brief roll around Sylla got himself straight up and carried on, you can see the FA "cracking down" on challenges which were a tad high such as Sessegnon's.

Hopefully though they'll take into account how they ridiculously robbed us a few years back when Michael Turner's "elbow" on a Manchester City player was deemed a frivolous appeal and his ban extended further. Hopefully they'll also consider the absolute 'mare Probert had, where he also booked Danny Rose for clearly winning the ball and do us a bit of a favour.