DARWEN are to appeal against the length of the suspension handed out to Scott Derbyshire who has been banned for a total of 98 days from the middle of August.

Derbyshire was dismissed in a bad tempered clash with Warrington last month which Darwen lost 3-1. He was shown the red card for violent conduct after pushing his head into the face of a Warrington opponent.

But Darwen feel the punishment is excessive for a 'butting' incident which manager Steve Wilkes said didn't cause an injury or warrant attention from the trainer.

"I am not condoning what he did and I dropped him from the next game. But to get 91 days for that is a farce.

"It's soul destroying. He will do all his pre-season training and play in the pre-season games but then I won't be able to pick him because he won't be able to play until nearly Christmas," said Wilkes, who feels there is far too much of an imbalance between the non-league and professional game when it comes to punishments for players.

Derbyshire has been banned for 91 days from August 14 with a further seven-day ban incurred for five bookings.

Meanwhile, Darwen travel to Oldham tomorrow looking for three points to keep their outside promotion hopes alive in the FNWTL Second Division. Wilkes and his assistant Matt Atkinson are both suspended, but Jimmy Khan returns from injury.