Coleman is not seeing red over Traore ruling

CHRIS Coleman admits he is ‘scratching his head’ over the decision to rescind Middlesbrough winger Adama Traore’s red card but he is not complaining!

Traore was sent off 10 minutes before half-time in the 3-3 draw between Sunderland and Boro at the Stadium of Light after the Spaniard raised his hands to Bryan Oviedo and pushed him to the ground in an off-the-ball incident which referee Tim Robinson was alerted to by one of his assistants.

Boro boss Tony Pulis claimed afterwards his player was provoked by Oviedo - but the TV pictures showed only Traore’s indiscretion.

Boro appealed against the dismissal and a Regulatory Commission this week overturned the decision and cancelled the four-game ban he would have faced, which included an extra game because it would have been Traore’s second red card of the season.

With TV pictures clearly showing Traore’s actions, Coleman cannot understand why the appeal was upheld.

However, he says he is happy Traore will now be available to face two of Sunderland’s relegation rivals Birmingham City and Barnsley - games he would have missed had the suspension stood.

He said: “I don’t know how they managed it, I have really no idea how that decision came about.

“I am actually happy about it, though, because Boro are playing some of our rivals and he is a good player.

“I am still scratching my head as to what happened there - but there you go.”

Traore’s dismissal evened up the sides, Sunderland having had on-loan Chelsea defender Jake Clarke-Salter sent off for a bad challenge on the Boro man ten minutes previously.

Clarke-Salter will be banned for three games, ruling him out of today’s trip to Millwall, the midweek home game against Aston Villa and next weekend’s game at QPR.

In the light of Boro’s appeal being granted, asked whether he wished he had appealed against Clarke-Salter’s red card, Coleman grinned; “As far as Jake’s challenge goes I think the less said about it the better!

“We can quickly move on, he can serve his time and we will get him back in the team.

“The good thing is he will serve the ban over the space of just a week, bang, bang, bang, and then he will be available again.”