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.

"Understandably referee Mike Riley made his decision based on what he saw from his position but the availability of video evidence means this is an incident that deserves further consideration."

The FA disciplinary panel will review the incident on Thursday and Hendrie is keeping his fingers crossed he can escape a three-match ban for violent conduct.

Meanwhile, Carlton Cole wants to remain on loan at Aston Villa from Chelsea for the remainder of the season. England U-21s striker Cole admits his form has been affected by recent speculation that Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho may want to recall him in January.

But Cole has now put such thoughts to one side and wants to help David O'Leary's side build on an encouraging start to their Barclays Premiership campaign.

Cole said: "As far as I am concerned I am here at Aston Villa for a season. When you let speculation about 'are you going back in January?' get to you it unsettles your game. That's definitely what happened in my case about three or four weeks ago. It was on my mind and affecting my game and I didn't really need it."

Villa manager David O'Leary, who admits he is being forced to play Cole more often than he would like because of injuries, expects the youngster to be around for the whole campaign.

"My gut feeling is that Carlton Cole will be here at Villa to the end of the season," he said.

"I hope he is getting back to his best but he is a kid who is having to play for us on a regular basis.

"Sometimes you'd love to leave him out once in a while and improve him out on the training ground but I'm having to use him week in and week out. He is making his mistakes and learning his game and even when he is going through a dip in form he is still having to play for us."