O’Brien was given his marching orders for pulling back Adrian Mutu when he was clean through on goal and although the contact was minimal the appeals panel chose to back referee Paul Durkin, which strictly speaking is probably the right decision.
The more cynical among you might be thinking that the contact would have been greater had O’Brien been quick enough to catch him earlier.
The Irishman will now sit out the trip to Wolves on November 29, which with Jonathan Woodgate set to return is pretty bad timing for him.