Robbie Keane hopes justice will prevail as Tottenham seek to have their captain's red card in yesterday's 3-2 defeat by Birmingham over-turned.
Keane was harshly sent off in the 68th minute for a one-footed lunge on Fabrice Muamba with referee Phil Dowd appearing to consult the fourth official before making his decision - although that has been denied by the body in charge of Premier League referees, Professional Game Match Officials.
The Football Association will consider a claim for wrongful dismissal on Tuesday and Republic of Ireland striker Keane, who had earlier hauled Spurs back into the game with two goals in three minutes, has urged Dowd to acknowledge he made the wrong decision.
"I'm obviously disappointed. Anyone that has seen me play over the years knows that I'm not a dirty player. I never go into a tackle looking to hurt anyone," he said.
"The two of us went for the ball, we both got a bit of the ball and Fabrice said sorry for what happened to me after the game. That says it all.
"The referee didn't explain why he was sending me off but there was no point me arguing because I wasn't going to change his mind.
"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.
"The club is going to appeal and hopefully the referee will have another look at it and common sense will prevail."
Keane is desperate to avoid the three-game ban that accompanies the offence as Spurs continue to loiter at the wrong end of the Premier League.
"No player wants to miss games. I love playing football and love playing every week. To have that taken away is a killer," he said.
"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 will be a massive blow."
Spurs dominated the match until Keane's sending off yet were being held 2-2 until Sebastian Larsson unleashed a sensational 25-yard winner in injury time.
Sloppy defending - with Younes Kaboul the biggest culprit - once again proved their Achilles heel and Keane lamented his side's ability to descend from the sublime to the ridiculous.
"The amount of bad luck we had against Birmingham sums our season up. One minute we're up and the next we're down," he said.
"The good thing is we have a game against Anderlecht on Thursday where we can qualify for the knockout phase of the UEFA Cup and we have to pick ourselves up for that."
Juande Ramos fielded a three-pronged attack against Birmingham with the hugely impressive Keane operating behind Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent.
The formation worked wonderfully as Spurs created a glut of chances in the first half, only to be let down by poor finishing when they could have been out of side at the interval.
"It was good playing with the other two strikers," said Keane.
"I've played in that deeper position a few times in my career. I started my career at Wolves in that position. We had enough chances to win and deserved to."
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish celebrated a winning start to his St Andrews reign and the Scot hopes it is a sign of things to come.
"We did some great work and we must continue with that type of character," he said. "We known there will be difficult games ahead but this win will enhance our confidence. The goal gave us the platform we needed. I'm sure the players will improve from here."
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