United won't appeal over Foster

9:11pm Thursday 4th September 2008

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Oxford United have not appealed against Luke Foster's sending-off at Ebbsfleet because it would have been a waste of time, says Darren Patterson.

The view the ref had of the incident made the tackle look a lot worse than it did from the other three sides of the ground.

Patterson said: "We're not appealing because it's a waste of time.

"From the ref's angle there is reason for him to do it.

"Even their manager (Liam Daish) said it was a fantastic tackle. In our day, it was a wonderful tackle, beautifully-timed.

"What people have got to remember with that tackle is that a year and a half ago, York away, the left back came in, similar touch, Luke's gone in, similarly bad touch and he didn't go in for it whole-heartedly.

"By not going in properly against this lad at York, he had his leg broken, and the lad only got booked, and it was a much worse tackle. So I feel a bit for Luke.

"Luke's timing is perfect and he's taken the ball and he's taken the lad.

"However, we understand that he can't go in like that, we've looked at the video and at the angle the referee's seen, which is different to our angle.

"I can understand a bit why the ref produced a red, but he's also got to understand that from our reaction, from our side, it looked that Luke was in perfect control, his timing was perfect and it was a hard, fair tackle.

"But in this day and age, as we've told him, you can't do it.

"I've seen lots of people do that tackle, and even worse - I've seen an Ebbsfleet player do it in a live game against Torquay when two feet were lifted off the floor and he only got a booking.

"We're not a dirty side, we're very disciplined. We're a competitive side - I don't think anyone wants to change that, our fans certainly don't.

"We'll do our best, keep our house in order and obviously we've had to address this run of red cards, and we'll try to work on it in training, and hopefully things will turn.

"It just seems that everything's going against us. I think over the season things will balance out, because it's about time we started getting some decisions."

• Former Oxford United manager Denis Smith, who was in the press box at Northwich, was as baffled as everyone else why Vics goalkeeper Scott Tynan didn't see red for his foul on James Constable, which conceded the penalty.

"It looked to me like he denied a goalscoring opportunity, so it should have been a red card," said Smith, who now acts as an inspector of Premier League matches.