Wolves today expressed their “huge disappointment” at the Football Association for rejecting their appeal over Nenad Milijas’ red card at Arsenal.

The club had hoped video evidence would see Milijas’ dismissal, which came in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates, rescinded by the FA’s appeals panel yesterday.

But the governing body upheld the decision of referee Stuart Attwell, and he must now serve a three-game ban, missing the Premier League fixtures against Bolton tomorrow and Chelsea on Monday, and the FA Cup third round tie with Birmingham.

The fact Alex Song was only booked for two much more serious offences during the game could not form part of the evidence.

“We are hugely disappointed with the ruling,” said Wolves secretary Richard Skirrow.

“From the video evidence of that challenge alone, we strongly believed we had very good grounds for appeal and this was an opinion that seemed to be shared by a lot of people who viewed the incident.

“Our view that the dismissal and three-match ban would be hugely disproportionate to the alleged offence was further reinforced by other incidents in the game.

“However, despite highlighting the inconsistency and harshness of Nenad’s dismissal, we have been told that it was not deemed to be an obvious and serious error and, therefore, the original decision and resulting punishment stands.

“In our view it was certainly not serious foul play.

“Prior to Tuesday, Nenad had only six cautions in English football and no suspensions. Likewise, as a club, we are not serial appealers of red cards.

“In fact, on further reflection, “disappointed” doesn’t seem to do justice to the feelings of everyone at the club on hearing this decision.”

Boss Mick McCarthy was gathering his thoughts before giving his reaction today ahead of the trip to Bolton.

He has to decide who replaces Milijas, with Dave Edwards expected to have shaken off a bug that kept him out of the Arsenal game.