O’Connor appeared to be very harshly treated by referee Richard Beeby who stunned most of the Turf Moor crowd by sending off James along with Millwall’s Jody Morris following an incident in the 70th minute.
Most people inside the ground could see no justification for James’ red card and Burnley boss Steve Cotterill said after the appeal had gone in, “Without criticising the referee too much, because he’s got enough on his plate after the other night, we feel he was wrong in his assessment. I’ve asked him to look at it again and to be fair to him he is having another look at it.
“That being the case I think he will find that James O’Connor has not done what he has said in his report and we do not feel that James deserved anything from that incident.”
That’s been the case and in a quick response following the news from the FA this afternoon he added, “We are delighted with the result and that James is available for us and that he doesn’t suffer the three match ban that he could have done. We are very grateful.”
O’Connor would have missed the league games against Luton, Leicester and
Millwall meanwhile have been unable to appeal, even regarding the red card given to Ben May, due to there being no video evidence available. As for referee Richard Beeby, this is the second time in a week he has got a red card so wrong that the FA have overturned it, surely they must now be considering the position of this particular referee.