Dundee United’s appeal against Ryan Edwards’ red card rejected

Dundee United have lost their appeal against Ryan Edwards’ dismissal at Hearts.

Edwards will now miss Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie against Kilmarnock and the following weekend’s cinch Premiership encounter with St Johnstone.

The defender was shown a straight red card following a VAR review of his challenge on Hearts midfielder Andy Halliday.

Referee Nick Walsh initially played on but acted after checking his monitor on the advice of video assistant Chris Graham.

The United skipper had won the ball but caught Halliday with his follow through and the former Rangers player showed off the resulting stud mark down the side of his leg.

United head coach Liam Fox said after the game: “My initial reaction was that it’s a really, really good tackle so that’s disappointing.

“The referee said it was excessive force, I just thought it was a good tackle. Maybe I’m getting old, but that’s a normal tackle in my day.”

United were ahead at the time of the 29th-minute incident and went on to lose 3-1 to remain bottom of the cinch Premiership.

They had succeeded before with an appeal against a VAR-assisted red card, overturning Tony Watt’s dismissal against Motherwell in October.

But this time a fast-track panel convened by the Scottish Football Association dismissed their case.