The Wellington Phoenix will be without midfielders Bozhidar Kraev and Nicholas Pennington for this weekend’s 12th round Isuzu UTE A-League match against Brisbane Roar.
Kraev and Pennington will each serve one-match bans after the pair were sent off in the second-half of the Phoenix’s 11th round match against Sydney FC on Saturday.
Kraev, the Phoenix’s leading goal scorer this season, was dismissed in the 71st minute for a contentious second bookable offence.
Quarter of an hour later Pennington was shown a straight red card after an altercation with Max Burgess, which saw the Sydney midfielder given a yellow.
The A-League’s independent match review panel met today to look at Pennington’s sending off as it only has the jurisdiction to assess red card decisions.
The panel determined the second-half substitute committed “serious unsporting conduct” and should serve the minimum one match suspension.
The club will not be appealing either suspension.
