Mikel handed three-match ban

Published Dec. 7, 2012 6:15 a.m. ET

foxsports

Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway has raided his old club Blackpool to land goalkeeping coach George Wood.

Wood, who played for the Eagles between 1983 and 1987, replaces Lee Turner after he followed former boss Dougie Freedman to Bolton.

"Working with Ian Holloway and Keith Millen was one of the main attractions of coming here and the other was the chance to win promotion to the top flight with Crystal Palace," Wood told the club's official website.

"I know of both Julian Speroni and Lewis Price, who are two very good goalkeepers and look forward to working with both of them as well as the academy keepers."

The midfielder entered the referee's dressing room after the 28 October clash at Stamford Bridge to confront match official Mark Clattenburg.

Mikel had been informed by team-mates that Clattenburg had used inappropriate language of a racist nature towards him during the match, allegations which later proved to be false.

The Football Association acknowledged the circumstances that led to his actions and said the levels of the ban and fine had been imposed accordingly.

A statement on the FA website read: "The Regulatory Commission's independent chairman Christopher Quinlan QC emphasised that the Independent Regulatory Commission accepted, as did The FA, that at the time he threatened the referee the player genuinely believed that the referee had racially abused him.

"But for that factor the suspension would have been significantly longer."

Mikel accepted the FA's charge of "using threatening and/or abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour in the official's changing room" and will now miss the Premier League games against Sunderland and Southampton as well as the Capital One cup quarter-final against Leeds.