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All this despite the fact that Cisse himself had the good grace to speak up for him, saying "He saw me coming to tackle him and tried to jump out of the way. I made hardly any contact with him, if at all, and I certainly did not deserve to be sent off. But he did not try to get me sent off and I do not blame him."
Cole himself says: "I do not dive. I am not a cheat and I have never tried to get another player sent off. Never. The Birmingham player did make contact with me even if it was only slight. I was hurt but I got up again as soon as I could. I didn't stay down for a long time or anything. It could have been a lot worse had I not jumped to get out of the way of the challenge. But it's not me who decides what any punishment is. It is the referee."
"He decided that it was a booking, not me. I didn't ask for him to be sent off or anything like that. Perhaps it was harsh but the rules are that you are not allowed to tackle like that."
So - par for the course then - the season's only one game old and already it would appear that people are trying to fit us up. We'd better get used to it I suppose.