Premier League - Spurs to appeal Keane red

Tottenham will appeal Robbie Keane's sending-off in Sunday's 3-2 defeat at home to Birmingham City.

More StoriesReport: Larsson stuns Spurs
Referee Phil Dowd showed Keane a straight red card for his challenge in Fabrice Muamba, but appeared to consult with fourth official Uriah Rennie before making his decision.

Dowd insists he was informing Rennie of the impending dismissal, but Spurs feel hard done-by as Keane touched the ball before his momentum took him into Muamba.

Keane had earlier scored twice to give Spurs a 2-1 lead, but they went on to suffer their first defeat under Juande Ramos thanks to Sebastian Larsson's stunning late winner.

"The sending-off was harsh. In this type of incident the referee would normally show a yellow card, it certainly wasn't red," said Ramos.

"The referee was very close by. It was very unfair. I don't know what happened but the closest person to the incident was the referee. Anybody else was a lot further away."

Assistant manager Gus Poyet was more outspoken, saying: "He talked to the fourth official. I didn't know the fourth official was reffing the match.

"I thought it was the job of the referee. A referee on the pitch is in charge and should be making the decisions.

"I didn't know you could ask the fourth official to confirm."

The controversy mirrors that of the 2006 World Cup final, when Zinedine Zidane was sent off for a butt to the chest of Marco Materazzi, seemingly as a result of video evidence.

However, while Zidane's offence was clear, Keane was extremely unlucky to be sent off and Tottenham are confident of having the punishment downgraded to a yellow card.