Take it on the chin, Keane

Keane should not appeal against his punishment

BBC Sport's Mark Lawrenson Reaction to Roy Keane's five-match ban

Roy Keane's five-match ban for bringing the game into disrepute seems about the right length of punishment to me and I have a sneaking suspicion that he and Manchester United will take it on the chin.

They should do.

The charges related to a claim in Keane's autobiography that he deliberately set out to hurt Manchester City midfielder Alf Inge Haaland in a game in April 2001.

Keane banned for five games

If United and Keane appeal, they run the risk of the ban being bigger and the fine being greater.

Four games sounds a lot better than if they suddenly hit him with eight or six matches.

I think he should take his medicine and get on with it.

Missing those four Premiership games will hurt more than paying his fine

Mark Lawrenson

I believe the punishment is about right.

You can argue all day about the severity of the fine - people are saying it's less than two weeks' wages - but what will hurt Keane more than anything is the fact that he is going to miss four games.

Officially, it's five games, but in truth it's only four as there is no way he would have played in the Worthington Cup match against Leicester.

Missing those four Premiership games will hurt more than paying his £150,000 fine.

Players hate missing out, especially when they are fit to play and it is only the laws that are stopping them from playing.

I felt that Keane's argument was lightweight.

It was based on the fact that they weren't his words, they were the words of his ghost writer Eamonn Dunphy.

But if you put your name to a piece of work, you read the thing first before you say it's okay.