Mullins gutted after soft suspension

Hayden Mullins has called for a change in the rules to prevent anyone else suffering his FA Cup heartache.

The West Ham midfielder must watch from the sidelines when his team-mates take on Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday after being sent off when the two sides met in a Barclays Premiership game on April 26.

Both Mullins and Liverpool winger Luis Garcia were shown straight red cards - an automatic three-match ban – following a tussle during the closing stages at Upton Park.

Despite appeals to the Football Association, the suspensions were upheld, ruling the 27-year-old and his Spanish opponent out of the showpiece match in Cardiff.

Mullins will still try to enjoy the occasion as much as possible, and will travel down to Wales as part of the squad. The midfielder, though, is all too aware such opportunities to play in a cup final may well come around only once in a career.

He declared: “I am gutted. It will be devastating watching the players out there, and thinking I would do this and that, to see the crowd, the horns, hear the fans.

“Knowing that I am going to be there will cushion the blow, but it is absolutely devastating not be playing there.

“Who knows? It could be my only FA Cup final, and to not be part of it is absolutely gutting.

“These opportunities do not come along often. You want to be part of it.”

Mullins insisted: “I think they [the FA] could maybe have done something.

“In harsh cases, where someone has committed a two-footed tackle and had broken someone else, then that is fair enough.

“I am biased, but I think my sending off was pretty soft to get a three-match ban and miss the FA Cup final.”

Mullins revealed he had asked referee Howard Webb for leniency. However, the match official felt he had no choice but to stick to the letter of the law and show both players red cards for violent conduct.

Mullins said: “I tried to talk to him and say ’it is handbags, there is an FA Cup final coming up. You do not really need to send us off. There is nothing in it’ – he was having none of it.”

The West Ham midfielder recalled: “I understand that in the heat of the moment, people do thing and it was out of character. I would not say I’m bitter, but disappointed that Garcia provoked me into a reaction.

“Maybe if I had done the same reaction as he done to me, gone down rolled about, I would not be in this situation. It is what you get for being honest and staying on your feet.

“But we shook hands after the game, apologised to each other and went to see the ref.

“He said that they are always getting assessed and there are people in the stands watching them all the time, and if he did not make the decision, he would have got punished and missed games.

“He had a long think about it, and he did not want to do it, but it was the only decision that he had left to make.”

Carl Fletcher looks set to benefit from Mullins’ suspension, after netting in the 2-1 win over Tottenham on Sunday.

The Wales international, 26, empathised with his team-mate, and said: “It is unfair for Hayden, he has had a fantastic season and it is a massive disappointment.

“Everyone in the squad feels for him. It is a huge shame he misses out on such a big occasion when he has put so much hard work in.

“Whatever has happened this season the squad has stuck together and got behind one another. It is no different now. These days, 11 players do not win anything, it is your whole squad.

“If you have splits in the camp you are not going to achieve anything. The bond between the whole squad, the whole 25 has really helped us to get where we are.”

That sentiment was epitomised by the offer from assistant manager Peter Grant to give Mullins his medal – although there are set to be enough to go around the whole squad.

Former Celtic midfielder Grant confirmed: “Yes, I have offered him my medal, if we win and he does not get one.

“It is heartbreaking for the boy.

“I remember what it was like to miss a final with Celtic, because I was booked in the semi-final, and I would not want that to happen to anyone.

“The medal is more use to him than me.”