Red-carded defender Alex McQueen has been reprieved following his controversial dismissal in Carlisle United’s pre-season victory over Preston.

The summer signing will not miss any competitive games in the new season despite being sent off in the second half of Tuesday’s 4-3 victory. forced Former Tottenham man McQueen will only be forced to sit out one friendly, meaning he will miss Saturday’s visit of Oldham.

But he will be free to return for the Blues in next Tuesday’s behind-closed-doors game against Queen of the South.

And the versatile defender will be free to compete for a place in the League Two curtain-raiser at Mansfield on Saturday week.

Carlisle boss Keith Curle had initially feared losing McQueen for three games after he was given his marching orders by ref Richard Clark.

Had the dismissal come in a competitive game the defender would have been banned for three matches, with the challenge on North End’s Ben Davies deemed serious foul play.

But the FA confirmed their disciplinary rules which state that a sending-off in a friendly only triggers suspension from the club’s next friendly.

It will come as a relief to Curle, who believed Tuesday’s official could have shown more leniency to McQueen.

The Blues boss believed the decision showed little consistency compared with an incident in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Bradford.

Curle said: “On Saturday there was a tackle that was a potential leg-breaking challenge.

“The referee said to the players, ‘In a league game, I’d have sent the lad off’, but he took no action.

“In [McQueen’s case] we had an exuberant challenge at a bouncing ball when the lad’s gone in without malice.

caught

“Both players had their feet raised and Alex caught [Davies’] foot just after the ball.

“Another referee would have have had a word with him, or at worst, asked me to take him off.

“If that’s deemed serious foul play I think there would be a number of challenges in pre-season games deemed the same.

“But it is a learning curve for Alex.”

McQueen has figured on both the right and left of United’s defence in pre-season, and also in a wing-back role.