Carlisle United decide not to appeal Ethan Robson red card

The Blues’ head coach, Mike Williamson, had suggested after the game that United would look to contest the straight red card shown to the midfielder in the FA Cup tie.

But Williamson today said that, after reflecting on and studying the incident further, United did not feel an appeal would have stood a strong enough chance of success, and they also did not want to risk having the suspension increased.

It means 28-year-old Robson will miss Saturday’s League Two trip to Salford City and subsequent league games against Bromley and Doncaster Rovers, although he will be able to play in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy at Morecambe next week.

Williamson said that, when speaking after the FA Cup first round tie last week, he had not yet seen replays of the Robson challenge with Steven Sessegnon that brought a 14th-minute red card from referee Martin Woods.

“Based off the reaction [on the Wigan bench], I thought that no-one was really calling for any cards and everyone was claiming for a throw-in, I think,” Williamson told the News & Star.

“Generally a big indicator is the reaction of the players, and their bench said to be it wasn’t [a red-card worthy challenge]. The lad [Sessegnon] jumped up, obviously a little bit late, but he said afterwards in the game there was no contact.

Robson will miss the next three league games but can play in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy next week (Image: Ben Holmes)

“So based off that, I just thought it would be a formality.

“But when you look at the picture and then watch it back, it [the challenge] doesn't actually make contact but you can't tell that, and it is late and it's high.

“So I think that the actual chances of winning the appeal are very, very minimal because of how it looks, [even if] the appearance is ten times worse than it actually was.

“I didn't want any further punishment with the appeal so we just left it.”

Williamson confirmed that, with Robson now out of league action until the visit of Crewe Alexandra on December 3, he would look to involve him fully in next Tuesday’s Trophy game at Morecambe.

“Obviously he's had a long delay injury-wise [Robson recently returned from a hamstring injury. We need to be careful building him up,” said Williamson.

“We know how important he's going to be for us. So we'll definitely be earmarking minutes for him [at Morecambe], hopefully 90 minutes.

“But other than, one door shuts and another door opens.”

Williamson said Harrison Biggins and Ben Williams have trained this week after injury and they will be further assessed ahead of a possible return to availability this weekend.