Villa appeal against Hendrie’s red card

ASTON VILLA yesterday officially lodged an appeal against Lee Hendrie’s sending off in the closing seconds of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Manchester City at Eastlands.

Club officials are forwarding video footage of the incident involving Hendrie and City defender Danny Mills to the Football Association in an attempt to overturn Mike Riley's red card.

Hendrie feigned as if to headbutt Mills but television pictures showed the midfielder made no contact. Villa operations director Steve Stride said: "Both David O'Leary and Kevin Keegan made their feelings clear after the game and we now feel that the incident merits a second look.