Belfast Telegraph

Kearney unhappy at ‘intimidati­on’

- BY DECLAN BOGUE

SLAUGHTNEI­L’S John Joe Kearney is one of those rare football managers that says exactly what is on his mind.

“We came here to play football and there were a few Kilcoo players maybe thought that they could intimidate­d us some of the things they were at, but it didn’t happen,” he told reporters after this feisty encounter.

Asked about the bizarre scenes when Kilcoo subs crowded around the dressing rooms for the re-emergence of the Slaughtnei­l team for the second half, Kearney explained: “That was what you would call a bit of intimidati­on.

“But sure if you read all the nonsense that was written in the press this week, and I know fellas do interviews and they have to report what was said, but it was just a bit of mischief-making about buying frees. The amount of frees they bought today was nothing normal.

“They couldn’t complain about the amount of frees they got today anyway — they got a hell of a lot more than we got.”

He added: “So, that dispels all that nonsense. We don’t buy into it and we didn’t buy in those things.” There were other things on Kearney’s mind. On Ronan Bradley’s black card for a tackle on Conor Laverty: “It was right beside us. He wasn’t even touched and he thought he was going into the swimming pool for a dive.”

He claims that when Antoin McMullan made his save from Darragh O’Hanlon’s penalty he did not see it as he was writing a sub slip at the time, but acknowledg­ed the role that selector Willie Hampson had in noting where O’Hanlon was placing his pre-game practise penalties.

“Willie is about a lot time, he is a shrewd head,” Kearney

 ??  ?? Black day: Slaughtnei­l’s Ronan Bradley was shown a black card yesterday for a challenge on Conor Laverty
Black day: Slaughtnei­l’s Ronan Bradley was shown a black card yesterday for a challenge on Conor Laverty

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