Saddlers to appeal Chambers' red card

The midfielder, who turns 34 tomorrow, was handed an unwelcome early birthday present when he was shown a straight red card by referee Gavin Ward eight minutes from time.

Saddlers boss Dean Smith felt the decision was wrong and vowed to appeal in a bid to avoid losing his skipper to a three game suspension.

"It's never been a sending off," he fumed. I have seen it again.

"At the time I never thought it was a sending off and I'm even more convinced now.

"We will appeal it. Unfortunately I think the referee has made a decision to the reaction rather than the actual tackle.

"It looked to me like he couldn't see the tackle."

In addition to the referee's decision, Smith was also disappointed with the sluggishness of his team's performance, after Liam Lawrence's goal condemned them to a 1-0 defeat in the first round replay and an early cup exit.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow," he said. "We did not do enough to win the game.

"We were not as good as we have been for our standards and some of the players did not play up to theirs.

"We did not deserve to win the game but I did not think we deserved to lose it either. I can't remember Richard O'Donnell making a save.

"There was a foul right in front of me in the build-up to their goal and in the context of the game the referee has been blowing up for them all game.

"In the final third we were nowhere near good enough and the players were told that at half-time.

"We started the second half quite well and had two good chances. If you don't take those chances you lose games."