Sergio - 3 game ban.

Cant understand why it was appealed, an obvious elbow. just because the referee was a twat doesn't make it any less of an elbow.

I think 2 reasons:

1. He never really connected...and how much intent was there is debatable.

2. The ref clearly saw it but bottled it when push came to shove.

Therefore, if he was found guilty, it was a definite 3 game ban. Appeal, you get the chance to prove what an utter fuckwit Mariner is, causing a little embarrassment to the whole idea that refs are now clamping down on things - that the refs association have been very vocal about. It makes it harder for refs to penalise us in the future - unless it's blatantly obvious - as we'll have this a case study.

The chances of a 4 game ban were slim - all 3 of the panel must have felt it was nigh on impossible for Mariner not to see it - which was the foundation to our appeal...so why not?

1. He showed intent. That's enough

2. Apparently, they don't increase the ban these days.

So there was nothing to lose with the appeal. But, Aguero deserved the ban in the first place.

If we wanted to show what a fuckwit Mariner and the system is , we could have accepted the charge and issued a statement criticising Mariner and the system. But that would have made some of them even more against us.