Jus In: A Derby County player who reportedly fought on staff has been charged with violent conduct by the FA and suspended for ten games.

Derby midfielder Bradley Johnson has been banned for four matches after

being found guilty of biting Stoke’s Joe Allen.

Johnson will be suspended for Frank Lampard’s Derby team until

December 29 after an independent panel agreed that his actions represented violent conduct.

The 31-year-old, who denied the charge, appeared to sink his teeth into Allen’s

jersey and shoulder after a huge melee in the first half of Wednesday’s game and the

FA took retrospective action after reviewing TV evidence.

Allen insisted after the game that Johnson had not bitten him but the panel,

made up of former referees, concluded the standard three-match ban was

insufficient and the FA has announced a heavier sanction of four games.

Johnson is suspended for Saturday’s game against Swansea after he picked

up his fifth booking of the season for the confrontation with Allen,

which means he will miss the next five Derby games. After the visit of Swansea,

he is also suspended for games against Wigan, local rivals Nottingham Forest, Bristol City and Sheffield United.

The FA’s statement read: “Bradley Johnson has been suspended for four games

after he was found to have committed an act of violent conduct for which the standard

punishment would be clearly insufficient.