Referee rescinds Shearer red card

Alan Shearer, the Newcastle United captain, has had his red card at Charlton Athletic on Saturday overturned. The referee Andy D'Urso and his assistant Graham Beale – the man who drew the senior official's attention to the incident which led to Shearer's dismissal – viewed the video evidence yesterday morning and rescinded the decision.

The announcement came only hours after Newcastle confirmed that they were to appeal against what was only the second sending-off of the former England captain's career. The news came as a complete vindication of Shearer, who was astonished to receive his marching orders for allegedly elbowing the Charlton defender Jon Fortune.

D'Urso went to his pocket after consulting Beale, who had raised his flag as the defender went to ground, but television replays showed that any contact had been accidental. The Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd said: "This is great news, but something we fully expected. We are all very pleased, but particularly for Alan, who suffered the injustice in the first place."

Shearer's only other red card came on 7 August 1999 when he was dismissed by Uriah Rennie for persistent foul play in a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa.

The Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages from The Observer over an article which said that his representatives had been involved in secret talks about succeeding the Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Liverpool's Phil Thompson and Danny Murphy have won awards as the Premiership manager and player of the month for November respectively. In Scotland the Livingston managerial team of Jim Leishman and David Hay have gained their second manager of the month award of the season.

Roma will pay a tribute to George Harrison, who died last week, by playing Beatles songs before tomorrow's Champions' League game against Liverpool in the Italian capital.

The 44-year-old former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar returned to coaching yesterday with the Cape Town-based South African Premier League club Hellenic. He was sacked last month by another Premier League outfit, SuperSport United.