A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Herd appeal over red card upheld

Aston Villa defender Chris Herd’s claim for wrongful dismissal in the Premier League game against West Brom on Saturday has been upheld, the English Football Association have confirmed.

Herd was shown a red card for violent conduct during the game at Villa Park after an incident involving West Brom’s Jonas Olsson.

As a result, the three-match suspension handed to him has been withdrawn.

O'Neill could return to Leicester

MARTIN O’NEILL is weighing up the prospect of making a sensational return to Leicester City, 11 years after he left the Midlands club to join Celtic.

The Northern Irishman, who has been out of work since he walked out on Aston Villa on the eve of last season, is eager to return to management and has not ruled out the possibility of going back to the club where he enjoyed five years of unprecedented success.

Much is likely to depend on the assurances he receives from Leicester’s Thai owners, in terms of not only the time he would be given to get things right but also the level of financial backing that would be made available should they reach the Premier League.

Roy Keane and Paul Ince are also keen to be considered and, much more surprisingly, Kevin Keegan has declared an interest in applying. Avram Grant, Alan Curbishley and Billy Davies could also come under consideration.

Cook expected to take over at St Johnstone

PAUL COOK is expected to be confirmed as the new manager of SPL side St Johnstone over the coming days, although the precise manner of his departure was one of the topics being sorted out between the 44-year-old and the Scots yesterday, writes Emmet Malone.

With Sligo Rovers having agreed a compensation package for the manager who had one year plus the option of a second outstanding on his contract, all that remained last night was for Cook and St Johnstone chairman Geoff Brown to agree the terms of his switch.

Brown would only confirm yesterday that he was aware of Cook who, it seems, may have been recommended to the club by the departing Derek McInnes.

The chairman and Cook appear to have met on Monday evening in Perth to start hammering out the basis for a switch, though, and talks were said to be continuing yesterday with a key topic, his desire to stay and oversee Sligo’s third consecutive cup final appearance on Sunday week against Shelbourne.

Cunningham goes on loan to Forest

IRISH INTERNATIONAL defender Greg Cunningham yesterday completed an emergency loan move to Nottingham Forest where he will be hoping to get the first team football required to play his way back into Giovanni Trapattoni’s plans, writes Emmet Malone.

The Manchester City defender won three senior caps last year when Trapattoni appeared to see him as a viable successor to Kevin Kilbane in the left back position. The player went on to make steady progress at club level after moving to Leicester City, but his momentum was abruptly halted over the Christmas period when he suffered a broken leg against Hull City.

“We had a vacancy at left back and Greg is a perfect fit for us,” said recently appointed Forest boss Steve Cotterill. “Left backs are difficult to come by and although he’s a young player I think he’s got a good future ahead of him.”