Gillingham are unlikely to appeal against Barry Fuller’s late sending-off against Brentford.

His dismissal for serious foul play means he’ll miss the next three games – including the FA Cup third round visit of Premiership side Aston Villa.

Gills boss Mark Stimson said: "We have looked at it and I don’t think we’ll be appealing. It looks worse than when it first happened.

"We’ll miss him with two massive league games coming up and two games where our back four is really going to be tested for different reasons.

“The lad is distraught. We all come into work in this game to learn and I said to Barry learn.

"Did you have to tackle? Was it life or death? Is he going to score the winning goal? Which area of the pitch is he in? That’s frustrating as he wasn’t in a position to hurt him.”

Nicky Southall could fill in at right-back for the league games against Dagenham on Boxing Day and Wycombe on Sunday but he’ll miss the Villa game as he is cup-tied.

Stimson added: "There are one or two players in the squad who have played right-back in their careers and we’ll look at that.

“The window opens a couple of days before that cup game so there might be a possibility of taking a right-back on loan for that one game if we think it’s worth it.”