DANNY LENNON has accused opposition players of 'manipulating' referees to get St Mirren captain Jim Goodwin sent off as the club launch an appeal on the Irishman's latest red card.

Goodwin was dismissed after 28 minutes of the Saints' Premiership win over Hibernian on Saturday following a challenge on midfielder Kevin Thomson.

Referee Kevin Clancy showed the Saints skipper a straight red card for the tackle but Lennon is confident the Paisley club have a strong case as he hit out at players seeking to take advantage of Goodwin's reputation.

Lennon said: "We will be appealing Jim's red card. We have discussed it internally and decided that we will appeal.

"Having analysed it and had the opportunity to look at the incident from several angles, there is no doubt in my mind that it is only Jim's trailing leg that makes minimal contact with the player.

"Unfortunately for us, the opponent has grossly over-reacted to make the tackle out to be something that it certainly wasn't."

He went on: "As we have witnessed, a number of players look to get Jim into trouble by over-reacting and looking to gain an unfair advantage."

A Scottish Football Association disciplinary panel will meet next week to consider the appeal, meaning that Goodwin is free to play against Partick Thistle on Friday night in a crunch fixture which could help decide if either side will face a relegation play-off at the end of the season.