Admit you're wrong ref - Sent-off Keane wants Dowd to overturn his red card - Sport

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Dowd sent Keane off for a challenge on Fabrice Muamba even though he appeared to win the ball and the Irish international is facing a three-game ban.

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Words of comfort: Gus Poyet soothes Robbie Keane

Tottenham are appealing the decision and Keane feels Dowd has to admit he got it wrong.

He said: "Hopefully the ref will have another look at it and common sense will prevail.

"Anyone who has seen me play over the years knows that I'm not a malicious player. I never go into a tackle looking to hurt anyone.

"The two of us went for the ball, we both got a bit of the ball and he (Muamba) said sorry for what happened to me after the game and that says it all.

"I like to think I'm honest and if it was a bad tackle I'd hold my hands up and admit it. But everyone in the ground knew it wasn't a sending off.

"It will be a three-game ban if it stands and no player wants to miss games. I love playing football and love playing every week. To have that taken away from me is a killer.

"It doesn't matter what games I miss. It's a huge disappointment.

"To have 20 minutes of the Birmingham game taken away from me was hard enough to take, so to have three matches as well will be a massive blow."

The red card was all the more controversial as it appeared Dowd spoke with fourth official Uriah Rennie via his mouthpiece before he made the decision.

Spurs assistant manager Gus Poyet said: "He asked the fourth official. I didn't know he was refereeing the game. The man in the middle is the one who should be refereeing."

New Birmingham boss Alex McLeish was non-committal on the three major refereeing decisions from Dowd — the two penalties (one for either side) and red card — although he hinted that Keane's dismissal was harsh.

The former Scotland boss said: "It's hard to say with the penalties. I think ours was deserved and Juande Ramos will think theirs was deserved. We probably both have our club's glasses on.

"On Keane I don't want to say because if I call it in his favour then it looks like I'm criticising the referee."