Hatters skipper McNulty cleared to face Salisbury after his red card is overturned

Hatters skipper Steve McNulty has had his sending off for “violent conduct for kicking a participant” in Luton’s 1-0 defeat at Southport on Saturday overturned by the FA on appeal.
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Video footage shows Sandgrounders keeper Danny Hurst make contact with McNulty’s boot as he tries to regain his footing and as a result he catches Southport captain Luke George in the face on the follow through.

Referee Chris Kavanagh instantly dismissed McNulty to the amazement of the former Fleetwood defender.

A Tweet from the Hatters read: “Breaking news: The Town have won their appeal to over-turn the red card shown to Steve McNulty on Saturday.”

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As a result McNulty is now clear to feature against Salisbury City at Kenilworth Road tonight in their first home league game of the season.

Boss John Still decided to launch the appeal after speaking with his skipper and reviewing the footage over the weekend.

Speaking at Monday’s press conference he said: “It’s one of those things, I didn’t see anything, no-one on our bench saw anything and in fairness to Southport, no-one on their bench saw anything either, because I asked afterwards if they’d seen the incident and they all said no.

“From our understanding, their guy got a knock on the back of the head which he said he’d received from the challenge from the cross, not when he’s fallen down.

“Having looked at the DVD, two of them have fallen down. It appears that the goalkeeper has got hold of Steve’s leg. I’m not saying he’s got hold of it intentionally as they’ve all gone together.

“Steve pulled his leg away, got up and ran off. The referee deemed it as dangerous play. But it’s not just me, a few of us have looked at the DVD and all come to the same conclusion.

“We don’t really see it as anything other than the player trying to get up. We’ve appealed, so let’s wait and see.”

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