RICHARD Sneekes is cursing his luck after discovering the consequences of his first red card in English football.

The Dutch midfield ace will miss just one game following his dismissal for two bookable offences in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Everton - but what a game!

The visit of Arsenal in a fortnight brings Sneekes former boss Bruce Rioch and his former Ajax teammate Dennis Bergkamp to Burnden and that, the player admits, is a painful price to pay for what he describes as "the softest red card in the Premier League".

"Missing the Arsenal game . . ." Sneekes pondered, "that's a shocker. You want to play every game but this was a really special one for me."

Sneekes, sent off for fouls on Craig Short and Andy Hinchcliffe pleaded: "I'm not a dirty player. I never try to hurt players but when the referee came over after the second one he just said to me 'You know you're going off, don't you?'

"It was ridiculous."

Everton manager Joe Royle said: "I thought Sneekes was unlucky. There were only two fouls in the game!

"I can't say what I feel about Barry Horne or else I'll be in trouble. But I thought he made a genuine attempt to play the ball - it was there to be attacked."

Gerry Taggart will miss the Premiership games at Nottingham Forest and at home to Arsenal plus the Coca-Cola Cup tie against Leicester following his sending off in the Reserves against Everton.

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