Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel wins Anfield red card appeal
Mar 25 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Post
Brad Friedel will be able to continue his remarkable unbroken record in the Premier League after Villa won their appeal to the FA over his sending-off at Liverpool.
Friedel was deemed to have been unfairly dismissed by referee Martin Atkinson and will now, barring injury, make his 183rd consecutive appearance, at Manchester United at Old Trafford, on Sunday week.
The news of his successful appeal was the second piece of positive news in 24 hours for Martin O’Neill following Wilfred Bouma’s hugely impressive performance for the reserves against Stoke City on Monday evening.
The Dutch defender now looks likely to make his first league appearance of the season at United following his horrific dislocated and broken ankle in July, which will also allow Luke Young to switch to Villa’s problematic right-back slot.
On the down side for O’Neill, the news that beleaguered striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has been called up to the England Under-21 squad for two friendly matches against Norway and France is not likely to have gone down well with the Villa manager.
The 22-year-old started the senior friendlies against Germany and Spain and after a season of 44 appearances, and with potentially another eight club games still to play, O’Neill would have preferred Agbonlahor to have rested.
O’Neill now has nine players away on international duty – but that is still 11 shy of the 20 professionals who are away with their countries at United.
Gareth Barry and Emile Heskey are in Fabio Capello’s England squad for the double-header against Slovakia and Ukraine.
Craig Gardner and James Milner are also with the England Under-21s for the friendlies against Norway and France.
Stiliyan Petrov is with Bulgaria for the World Cup qualifiers against Ireland and Cyprus.
Brad Guzan is in America for their World Cup qualifiers at El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago, and although John Carew will miss Saturday’s friendly in South Africa, he will join Norway for the friendly against Finland on April 1.
Nathan Delfouneso, who will become an even more prominent figure in the run-in after Marlon Harewood’s loan switch to Wolves, is with the England Under-19s, who face the Czech Republic at the Banks’s Stadium, Walsall, tonight.
Villa’s woeful recent form has seen them slip three points behind Arsenal in the race for a Champions League qualifying place and knocked out of two cup competitions.
But O’Neill is convinced the team’s confidence will return.
