COLCHESTER United will be appealing against Phil Ifil's red card, following the right-back's controversial 14th minute dismissal in Tuesday night's 3-1 home defeat by Hull City.

Carl Marston

By Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United will be appealing against Phil Ifil's red card, following the right-back's controversial 14th minute dismissal in Tuesday night's 3-1 home defeat by Hull City.

Referee Pat Miller angered the U's supporters, players and officials by sending off Ifil for violent conduct, after the former Tottenham defender collided with Hull front-runner Fraizer Campbell.

The decision left United having to play 76 minutes with just 10 men, a huge task against promotion contenders.

Williams revealed last night: "I've seen the video and we will be appealing against the sending-off.

"I think that we have good grounds for an appeal. The pace of their lad (Campbell) made it look more serious than it was. It was his momentum that carried him through."

Hull boss Phil Brown had described Ifil's challenge as "malicious," adding that it "could have caused Fraizer a serious injury."

But Williams did not agree: "I'm fed up of talking about Hull City and what they say. We are just going to appeal, because otherwise Phil will get a three-match suspension.

"I thought the lads were magnificent. They made a real fight of it, despite being down to 10 men. A lot of teams would have rolled over, but we were still in it until their third goal as late as the 87th minute."

Ifil believed that he was hard done by. The 21-year-old said: "A trip in the game is just that and there were lots of tackles like that across the 90 minutes.

"The referee said that it was violent conduct and that I took a swipe at the Hull player, but I'm not like that and I would not do that to a fellow professional. I was surprised to get the red card."

Tuesday night's defeat, which has kept the U's marooned a daunting 11 points adrift of safety at the foot of the Championship table, was made all the worse by another injury blow.

Skipper Karl Duguid was forced to leave the pitch with 20 minutes to go, due to a knee injury. Duguid therefore joins an ever-lengthening injury list that includes Teddy Sheringham, Mark Yeates, Pat Baldwin, Danny Granville, Chris Coyne, Kevin McLeod, Aidan Davison, Luke Guttridge and Mark Cousins.

Williams confirmed: "Karl (Duguid) opened up his knee, and none of the others are ready to return yet."

The U's will therefore be down to the bare bones for Saturday's trip to Norwich City. Jamie Guy did play 30 minutes for the Reserves on Monday night, but that was his first run-out for two months,