SOUTHEND United are set to appeal the two red cards they were handed in their 3-0 defeat to York City on Saturday. 

Referee Paul Cooper showed red cards to both Harry Taylor and Gus Scott-Morriss on Saturday, as goals from Thierry Latty-Fairweather, Maziar Kouhyar and Zanda Siziba handed York their first three points of the season.

It had already been established prior to the match that Cooper hadn't been too shy to show a card in his previous matches, averaging at least one red card a game this season, with City manager Neal Ardley keen to avoid any altercations with the officials prior to kick-off. 

It was Southend who were mostly affected, but manager Kevin Maher confirmed that the club had lodged appeals against both offences, with the Shrimpers squad down to just 11 available first-team players.

Speaking to the Echo, Maher said: “I’ve stayed away otherwise I’ll get in trouble.

“I don’t want to make it about him because I think he likes that.

“The stats before the game tell you everything about him and, in the meeting before the game, the arrogance was what it was as well but what can you do?

“I see managers talking about the standards of referees all the time.”

Ardley also offered his thoughts on some questionable defending, saying: “If he’s had six or seven games and given 40 yellow cards and four reds, now six reds, then surely there’s an issue there where this isn’t right for football.

"I could tell right from the word go that he was going to be a bit of a school teacher about everything, I said to the lads that you can’t stand on the ball from a free-kick and no kicking the ball away.

“They are obviously not happy and I feel for Kev, he’s got barely any players. 

"Then he’s had two sent off and that’s not fair given what he’s going through."