A DECISION to overturn two Newcastle United red cards has been criticised by a former referee chief even though it has been labelled the correct decision by the manager they face this weekend.

On the same day as Keith Hackett, the ex-general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, hammered the Football Association over the ruling to have Jonjo Shelvey and Paul Dummett’s dismissals quashed, there was support from Birmingham boss Gary Rowett.

Shelvey was sent off for a clash with Nottingham Forest’s Henri Lansbury last Friday night and shortly after Dummett was also red carded for bringing down the same player when referee Steve Martin deemed him to be the last man.

But there was criticism of the decisions, with Newcastle reduced to nine men as well as seeing Forest awarded two penalties which were saved by goalkeeper Karl Darlow. After Newcastle’s appeal, the FA’s Independent Regulatory Commission hearing withdrew the players’ suspensions.

Hackett told You Are the Ref: "In neither case did the referee make a clear and obvious error. These verdicts are just plain wrong. Those involved should hang their heads in shame.”

Yet Newcastle did have support from Gary Rowett, the manager who will be leading Birmingham into battle at St James’ Park on Saturday.

Shelvey and Dummett would have been suspended for the game and Rowett is well aware of the importance of both players to Rafael Benitez’s team.

But Rowett thinks justice has been done and that the Championship leaders didn’t deserve to have been issued with the two red cards anyway.

The Birmingham boss said: “It's really easy for me to sit here and say maybe Newcastle, big club, got a lot of things going on in the background with Jonjo Shelvey anyway.

“But if I am being really brutally honest I don't think either of those decisions were the right decisions on the day.

"I think he was very unlucky to get sent off, I couldn’t see much in the incident. I think that probably Jonjo's reputation in that sense has probably made the decision happen - which in unfair. He is an excellent footballer. I also felt the Dummett one was not a penalty either.

" I would have loved those two players to have not been available for Newcastle but I think justice-wise they should be playing.

"You want to face the best players. I think Jonjo Shelvey is probably one of the best midfielders in the division, if not the best midfielder. I think justice was done for Newcastle - as galling as it is for someone like us.

"That's not always the case in those situations, they don't want to admit the officials were wrong but in fairness to the powers that be, they have done that and I think that's the right way to do that.”

Shelvey already has a hearing hanging over him. The 24-year-old was charged by the FA following allegations that he directed racially abusive language towards Wolves’ Romain Saiss, a Moroccan midfielder, on September 17.

Shelvey is personally contesting the charge and is understood to be ready to appear in front of an independent FA disciplinary commission during the week starting Monday, December 19.

It is understood there are discrepancies between witnesses over precisely what was said. Should the charge be upheld then the Newcastle midfielder faces a minimum five-match ban.