Oxford United have lost their appeal over Wayne Hatswell's red card at Lincoln, and the defender will now serve a three-match suspension starting on Saturday. And the bad news for United boss Mark Wright is that it looks as though he must now do without his three first-choice defenders for the home match with York City on November 3.

With Hatswell now definitely out, Scott Guyett will serve a one-match suspension for his harsh booking against Scunthorpe on Saturday, and Phil Bolland will sit out the first of a three-game ban for his red card in the same match.

But United have appealed over Bolland's controversial dismissal by Joseph Ross, as well as that of Paul Moody, and must hope they are successful if they are to have one of their top defenders available for the visit of York.

The appeals for both those players were sent off to the FA yesterday, after Wright, chairman Firoz Kassam, secretary Mick Brown and communications officer Chris Williams all studied the tape.

Wright, however, will not be appealing against his sending off by Ross, having admitted at the time that he deserved to be red-carded for his actions.

Hatswell and Martin Thomas both saw red in injury time at Lincoln on October 13, and after studying video evidence, United decided to launch an appeal to get Hatswell's dismissal overturned.

But after studying the video yesterday, an FA disciplinary panel ruled the decision to dismiss Hatswell was correct.

"The appeal over Wayne Hatswell's red card was turned down by the panel," said the FA's Bev Ward.

"The panel studied the video and said that Hatswell was correctly sent off, and he will now serve his suspension."

A baffled Wright said last night: "The appeal has been turned down, after they said that there was evidence that the red card was deserved, which I still don't understand, but there you go."

Meanwhile any action taken against Ross for his handling of the Scunthorpe game depend entirely on the report of the referee's assessor who was sitting in the stand.

Ian Christon, of the Football League, said last night: "We have had the report from Oxford United, but any action we may take will depend on the report filed by the official assessor, who is our independent assessor.

"Of course there has to be a degree of understanding as this is Mr Ross's first season as a Football League referee, and it is also important to realise that emotions run high during and after football matches.

"But if the assessor makes specific comments about anything, we have the option of giving Mr Ross one-on-one advice from his referee coach."