McConville fumes at refereeing decisions as Murphy left perplexed 

“Shocking stuff” said the Armagh manager, Kieran McGeeney, after he felt his side had been unfairly penalised for a breach offence in his team’s defeat to Galway at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh on Saturday night.

200 kilometres down the road at Netwatch Cullen Park, Geezer’s (aka McGeeney) former team mate and now manager of the Wicklow senior football team, Oisin McConville, was also vexed by the match officials as he watched his side lose to Carlow.

This time it wasn’t just one decision which irritated him as he spoke up for the game of football in the lower reaches of the league.

“I feel a little bit aggrieved for both teams. I know the GAA don’t put much stock in Division 4 and what goes on in Division 4 but we would like a fair crack at the new rules. The same as everybody else. I know we don’t have the hooter. That is the first thing but we need the top refs if at all possible,” he said.

Speaking slowly and obviously putting a lot of thought into what he was saying he went on without being prompted.

“I feel sorry for the lads to be honest. It is such a difficult game to referee but there were rules there tonight that, to be honest, I didn’t know existed. It cost us dearly.

“He (the referee) made Eoin Darcy, to go off the pitch for some reason. Three or four times, they didn’t make a player to go off the pitch. We were penalised even though the linesman told him to go back on the pitch. That is massively frustrating and disappointing. This is not at the ref. We want the best referees. I know they don’t put much stock in Division 4 but we deserve what division 1, division 2 and division 3 are getting but we are not getting that,” McConville stated.

Wicklow had a goal disallowed in the final play which would have given them a share of the league points. McConville had a recording leading up to that three-pointer.

It is hard to say what the goal was disallowed for. Certainly there were two attackers in the Carlow goalkeeper’s eye-line as Healy blasted the ball to the net. A split second after the Wicklow man took his shot, he appeared to swing around looking in the direction of the referee. Had he heard the whistle?

The Wicklow manager admitted his side were second best on the night.

“Do you know what? I would be the first one to say we were not good. I didn’t think we deserved much from the game. At the end of the day it was a goal but it should have been given,” said McConville who seemed to be caught between two stools. Wicklow’s poor performance and that, he alleged, from the match officials.

“Our performance wasn’t good enough. We would hold our hands up and accept that. It is mightily frustrating when you see stuff and are going through stuff that we have really and truly have never been told about rules and regulations. I would love some communication actually between the referees body and everybody else. We would love a top referee every now and again.” One thing for certain though, it was not a good weekend for two Armagh icons.

Murphy perplexed at how Carlow almost let win slip away

They say it is better to win a bad game than lose a good one. No doubt, the Carlow manager Joe Murphy, agrees with these sentiments after he watched his side almost draw a game which they probably should have won by a lot more than the meagre three point gap at the end.

“I am scratching my head on how we won the game. Even as bad as we were we should probably have won it by more,” said Joe Murphy.

“I thought we were very mediocre there tonight and we have so much to work on. Our own mistakes and the trouble we caused ourselves was infuriating at times. It just shows the character the lads have,” he said as he developed his argument.

“Sometimes things might go wrong on the pitch. A pass might go astray or a shot might go wide. You can’t train character in lads. They showed it again. They have loads of character.” Carlow cleaned up on the kick-outs. There was talk of a 100% return in the first half. Could this be true?

“I haven’t seen the stats. We managed it well. In the O’Byrne Cup we tried a few combinations and it worked well tonight. That is because coaches, Christy (Bolger), Mick (Kehoe) and James (Clarke) have worked so hard on that element of our game. That is primary possession.” Carlow created so many chances in the second half and should really have killed the game in the final minutes. Six wides potentially kept Wicklow in the game.

“If they go over and there was whiskers in them and the game is over. We would never hold lads back from seeing an opportunity and making up their own minds. That is the individuality in the game. We didn’t need them tonight but on another night we might need them and they sail over.” 

The winning manager said the vociferous Carlow support lifted the players.

“I am just delighted for the crowd who were there. They really got behind us coming down the straight and there was a great atmosphere. If that goal stood it would have been a great anti-climax but having said that we deserved our win tonight.

“We have so much to improve on and that is what we are striving to do.”