Alan Curbishley, the West Ham United manager, has been boosted by Lee Bowyer’s successful appeal against suspension and the likely return of Scott Parker to training next week. The FA disciplinary commission has overturned the dismissal of Bowyer, the midfield player, for a tackle on Damien Johnson two minutes from the end of West Ham’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham City on Saturday.

Mark Clattenburg, the referee, gave Bowyer a straight red card, which would have meant the player being banned for matches against Fulham, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. The FA has decided that the tackle was not worthy even of a yellow card.

The Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the refereeing body, will discuss the incident with Clattenburg to establish how he reached his decision. The official may have had one eye on Hayden Mullins, the West Ham midfield player, and David Murphy, the Birmingham defender, lunging at each other in an incident that immediately preceded Bowyer’s challenge.

Curbishley has also welcomed the news that Parker should return to training next week, when the first-team players reconvene from a week off. The midfield player has been out of action since suffering a knee injury against Manchester United at the end of December, the third time this season that he has been sidelined for an extended period with the problem.

Parker first suffered the injury during a pre-season tour to Austria. In only his second match after returning, he limped off at half-time in the 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal in September after a recurrence of the problem. He was out for two months, even though a scan revealed that medial ligament damage was not serious.

Curbishley hopes to have Bobby Zamora in contention for the away match against Fulham a week on Saturday. The forward scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory in a reserve team match against Birmingham last night.