ASTON Villa's Chris Herd wants to be known as a committed competitor rather than a dirty player after the second miscarriage of justice of his career.

Herd is delighted to be available for Saturday's trip to Sunderland after the red-card he received for his non-existent stamp on Albion’s Jonas Olsson was rescinded on appeal, saving him an unfair three-match ban.

The versatile youngster is worried he will wrongly be labelled a hatchet man, but has vowed never to lose his enthusiastic up-and-at-em style.

“I don’t want a reputation for being dirty and I don’t see myself as that at all,” said Herd.

“I’m always looking at the ball. I never try to hurt another player. I’m a competitive player like a lot of players are in the Premier League and all around England.

“I think everyone needs that in their game, so it’s not a bad thing to have.

“I’m just one of these players that like to play like that. It’s just in my nature, I can’t take that out of my game.

“I’m a competitive player and I want to work hard for the team and for the fans to just make us better.”

Last Saturday’s 36th minute dismissal was not the first time Herd has been a victim of an error from the officials. During a loan spell at Port Vale in 2007-08 he was caught up in a case of mistaken identity.

Despite his Aussie accent, Herd was given a second yellow card for dissent and subsequently sent off in a 3-2 defeat at Bristol Rovers, even though another player had shouted the offending words.