Babay loses Red Card appeal

Newcastle United's defender Celestine Babayaro has lost an appeal against his red card at Aston Villa. The 27-year-old Nigerian will now be banned for two matches, the FA Cup encounter with Southampton and the Premiership match against Charlton. Babayaro was dismissed for a professional foul on Milan Baros.

"The extra match is because of the fact Babayaro admitted a charge of violent conduct in November last year," said an FA statement. "That counts as a previous sending-off under the disciplinary totting-up process." Babayaro was dismissed in the second half of Saturday's Premiership match but Newcastle still managed to hold on for a 2-1 victory.

I was very very surprised that the appeal was turned down because I thought that in the tackle Babayaro himself was kicked by Villa's Czech striker Milan Baros. Babayaro has done alright this season and I think Newcastle will kind of miss him because in the last two matches under Glen Rodder he has played well and Newcastle have only conceded 1 goal.

Megs to leave the Forest

Nottingham Forest manager Gary Megson is set to step down as Forest manager after 13 months in the job. It has to be said not a great 13 months for Megson or Forest. The former West Brom manager replaced Joe Kinnear at the City Ground in January 2005.

He was unable to stop the former European champions from slipping into the third tier of English football for the first time in 54 years.Wednesday's 3-0 defeat at Oldham left Forest only four points above the relegation zone.

This news has not really come as a surprise to me and I would think not to the dismay of Forest fans. Megson, to be fair, has done sh*t at Forest but it wasn't all his fault because when he arrived, straight away he lost his two best players, Andy Reid and Michael Dawson, to Tottenham.