Charlton Athletic 4 Colchester United 0

Colchester United boss Joe Dunne will be appealing Magnus Okuonghae’s red card, following tonight’s 4-0 defeat at Charlton in a Capital One Cup first round tie.

Okuonghae was sent off in the 23rd minute, when the score was still 0-0, for alleged handball after stopping Franck Moussa’s goalbound shot.

Charlton went on to coast to victory, against 10 men. Yoni Buyens converted the ensuing penalty, before Lawrie Wilson scored twice early in the second half, and substitute Simon Church added a fourth in the 89th minute.

“It was not a penalty. The ball hit Magnus in the ribs, not the hand,” insisted Dunne.

“Clearly on the TV screen he is looking straight at it. I understand it is a goal-scoring opportunity, but you ask your defenders to block things and throw your body in front of things, and save the goal by whatever possible means, and Magnus has done that with his rib cage. And yet the referee has given the penalty, and sent him off!

“Mags is an honest captain, and an honest person, and if he had handled it, he would have said that he had handled it. He is adamant that he didn’t, which is why he argued. We will be appealing.

“You want defenders to defend, and Mags did that, although he has been punished for it.

“That decision completely changed the course of the game because up until then we had been more than a match for Charlton.

“We passed the ball and created a few half-opportunities and were looking quite comfortable in the game,” added Dunne.

The U’s boss also revealed that he could not bring on substitute Josh Thompson, because the ex-Portsmouth defender had injured his hamstring in the warm-up.

Okuonghae faces a three-match suspension, unless any U’s appeal is successful.