"For 65 minutes we were as good as they were"

When you lose a game, the knee-jerk reaction when one or two referee’s decisions go against you is to ignore your own side’s short-comings and become distracted by the noise elsewhere. Pat Bennett did not go down that road. 

He was asked whether a ten-point deficit was unfair on his side after they had stayed with Wexford for almost the entire game.

“It is easy to say it was harsh but the thing is we have to be cleverer. We were in it with, what was it, four points in it. You lose by ten. You have to learn that when things go against you we don’t lose it,” said the Carlow manager who looked inside the group rather than outside it.

“We gave them some handy scores. It is a learning curve. It is always a learning curve. I think for 65 minutes we were as good as they were. We have to take the learnings from this.” 

He was still willing to look at the discussion around the awarding of the penalty.

“The argument you have with the referees is that Fiachra (Fitzpatrick) was coming out with a ball and he was tripped. The referee deemed that it was accidental. Kevin was trying to hook your man and he tripped your man. He (the referee) doesn’t deem it to be accidental. It was disappointing, from my point of view, that he (the referee) didn’t call it.

“That is life. That is what it is. Wexford won the game. They were cleverer. They were sharper. They are further down the line than we are.” The introduction of Lee Chin signalled a huge reaction from the Wexford supporters in the stand. He didn’t let them down either scoring two points, one from way out the field under the stand.

“You could say that is their strongest team yet. They have everybody back bar Jack O’Connor. They brought in Lee Chin. We have to get our boys back and we have to go again, ” said Bennett.

If there was one moment where Carlow could possibly have been looking for fair play from the match officials then it is the Chris Nolan situation. The Mount Leinster Rangers clubman, was just back after serving a three month suspension for what was described as abusive language to a match official after his club’s exit to Naas in the Leinster club championship.

He has served his time now. His slate is clean. On Saturday he shipped some hard hits but held his counsel. Particularly with one heavy tackle in the opening half on a player who has featured on six Joe McDonagh Cup teams of the year.

“Everybody and everybody in the stand knew it was a straight red for what he did to Chris. It was a straight red. Everybody saw it. Chris is a great guy. He is a great leader. You can only take so much when you are getting punished and punished and getting nothing in return. He was very good and could easily have reacted. Look, it is a learning curve like I say and you just have to go and learn,” noted Bennett.

Carlow's next game in Division 1B of the Allianz Hurling is a potentially crucial one away to Antrim on Sunday 22 February. A win would move Carlow on to four points and almost certainly secure their place in the division for next season but they will be wary of a backlash from Davy Fitzgerald's Antrim team who have lost all three games so far, including heavy defeat to Kildare in their latest outing.