Norwich City this evening officially confirmed that they had lodged an urgent appeal against Dion Dublin's red card at The valley last night.
For 84 minutes the 38-year-old had – along with Canary crossbar – managed to keep Charlton at bay. But by the time Addicks skipper Andy Reid had twice converted from the penalty spot, so one or two tempers were beginning to fray.
They had long since snapped altogether between Messrs Huckerby and Mills.
Thrown up front upon the 90th minute arrival of Jason Shackell, Dublin was chasing the ball down towards a distant corner flag when he and Danny Mills clashed. The first incident was shoulder-to-shoulder.
By the time Mills had picked himself up off the floor, not only was referee Jamail Singh waving a red card in Dublin's direction but Darren Ambrose was standing between the two 'warring' parties.
They remained two or three feet apart – there was no 'second incident' as one of Norwich's coaching staff reportedly was told by the referee afterwards.
Reviweing the incident again in the Press room afterwards and the video evidence looks wholly compelling.
You can also see Mills stepping across and into Dublin's line of movement in the first place. There is a far stronger case for obstruction against the one-time Canary youth product than there is for a head-butt by Dublin.
There is one further point that needs to be made. In what is a win-at-all-costs, professional sport, Mills walked away without a booking to his name. What goes around may come around, but last night he 'did' Norwich.
He walked the line – stepped across it some might claim – and got away with it. Some 24 hours later and it was the Canaries left to mop up the mess with the Football Assocation ahead of this weekend's trip to Wolves. Nor was he the sole reason that Norwich lost the game 2-0.
It was just the Punch and Judy sideshow to yet another difficult day at the office.
“After the match a member of our coaching team spoke to the referee who indicated that Dion had been sent off not for the initial shoulder charge with Danny Mills but for the subsequent face-to-face confrontation where, in the referee's opinion, Dion attempted to head-butt Danny Mills,” Canary chief executive Neil Doncaster told the club's official website this afternoon.
“We have reviewed the video evidence which shows absolutely no attempt by Dion whatsoever to head-butt Danny Mills.”
Confirmation that the disciplinary wheels were now turning came first on the official Football Association website this afternoon, where the 38-year-old's name and charge appeared just beneath that of Dennis Wise's No2, Gus Poyet.
The Elland Road assistant boss had been charged with improper conduct as the game's governing bodies continue their seemingly unending rows with the powers-that-be in Yorkshire.
Of far more concern in this neck of the woods was the fate of Dublin's red card as the 'Disciplinary Latest' section on the site recorded the fact that not only had a claim for wrongful dismissal been received, but that a “regulatory commission” will hear the claim tomorrow, September 20.
That, clearly, would give the stand-in Canary skipper every chance of being first cleared and then being eligible for the trip to Molineux on Saturday. Should, of course, they find in the City star's favour.
Find against him and if they deem it to be a 'frivolous' claim, then they have it within their power to add on a further, one match ban for what, basically, they would see as an exercise in time wasting.
That was the fate that befell Derby striker Craig Fagan last week as his appeal against the three match ban that followed his stamp in the 6-0 defeat by Liverpool was not only upheld by the commission, but was extended to a full, four games for what they deemed a 'frivolous' claim.
There is certainly nothing remotely 'frivolous' about Norwich's appeal to have Dublin's red card over-turned.
Given his current level of importance to Grant's inconsistent side, his absence for the next three games – away to Wolves, away to Manchester City and above all, home to bottom of the table Sheffield Wednesday – is something all concerned could desperately do without.
If nothing else it merely returns the spotlight to that much-troubled centre-half spot where today's latest loan news brought no relief for Grant as Sheffield United stepped to the front of the chasing Championship pack and snapped up 21-year-old Aston Villa centre-half Gary Cahill.
From a distance, the fact that he was Sheffield-born may well have helped strengthen Bryan Robson's arm – it was one of the tricks that they pulled to get Billy Sharp back at Bramall Lane over the summer, the fact that he had red-and-white blood. They'll also be paying top dollar after the chairman, Kevin McCabe, sold his property investment company for this summer for a cool ?850 million.
Cahill started 19 Premier League games for Villa last season, but the arrival of Birmingham-born Zat Knight and the on-loan Curtis Davies from neighbours West Bromwich Albion has knocked him back down the pecking order.
News of his availability will have seen a clutch of interested Championship parties forming a less than orderly queue around the block at Villa Park. The Canaries may well have had at least a passing interest in developments given their summer-long chase of Manchester United starlet Ryan Shawcross ended in disappointment.
Fitz Hall was another to have crossed Grant's thoughts only for Wigan to insist he was staying put.
“There has been a lot of interest in Gary, but I had to balance his need for football with the needs of the club,” said O'Neill the manager, on the official Villa website this afternoon. “But I am always keen for players to get action wherever possible.”
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