Keane hopes card will be rescinded

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 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 was denied today by the body in charge of Premier League referees, Professional Game Match Officials.

The Football Association will consider a claim for wrongful dismissal tomorrow 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 Barclays 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."  PA