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Howard ban blunder
BRIAN Howard will miss Sheffield United's next two matches after falling victim to an administrative error, the Championship club have confirmed.
Howard, whose loan move from neighbours Barnsley is scheduled to be made permanent in January, had expected to miss next weekend's return to Oakwell after being booked during Tuesday's draw at Bristol City.
Under the terms of their agreement with Simon Davey's side United are unable to select Howard for that match and believed that he had collected five yellow cards so far this season.
However, they insisted last night that a review of Howard's disciplinary record revealed the caution was in fact his sixth of the campaign, which rules him out of tomorrow's visit of Plymouth Argyle as well.
"Brian is not available," United manager Kevin Blackwell said. "The people who deal with suspensions got it wrong.
"We discovered that afterwards.
"We thought he'd miss Barnsley, we knew that, but there's another booking he got that didn't appear on any of the databases.
"The adminstrative people got it wrong.
"It was nothing to do with us."
Although Blackwell has absolved his staff at Bramall Lane of any responsibility for the error, the exact reasons behind Howard's predicament are shrouded in doubt.
What is certain, however, is that United must now decide who replaces Howard in midfield for tomorrow afternoon's fixture.
Gary Speed could come into contention providing medical staff are satisfied his injured calf has healed, although Blackwell revealed he has other options at his disposal.
"That's what I've got to spend the evening thinking about," he added.
"By the time I come into training I'll have to have made a choice.
"Speedo, though, is close, but what I don't want to happen is for him to be not quite close enough and then we lose him for six weeks."
Meanwhile, United will open talks withn Paddy Kenny about a new contract.
The goalkeeper's present deal runs out at the end of the season.
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Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
