West Ham to appear before FA tribunal to dispute Andy Carroll ban

West Ham United will appear before a Football Association tribunal in a challenge to the three-match suspension given to Andy Carroll.

Hugely disappointed

West Ham co-chairman David Gold had previously suggested that they would look at alternative ways to get the ban overturned, as they fear the suspension could mean the difference between relegation and top-flight survival. "We are hugely disappointed at the outcome of the process," said Gold. "There is nowhere to go other than to seek some kind of legal redress. It's not ideal, the last thing I want to do is going to some kind of legal issue because I think it is a footballing issue. "But we are fighting for our lives. If we were mid-table we would probably get on with it but we are fighting for our lives to retain our Premiership status and we owe it to our fans, we owe it to ourselves." Gold claimed most people would view the red card as wrong and that Carroll had been trying to shrug off Flores. He added: "We are a club that understands there are rules and we abide by them. But you have every commentator and 80 per cent of the media saying it wasn't a sending off. "Yet Howard Webb reviews the situation afterwards and says he stands by his judgement and when it goes to appeal and three guys stand by Howard Webb you feel 'how can this be right'. "We are upset, we feel we have been badly treated."