Emotional McEntee vents his fury at referee as Royals’ summer is halted
MEATH manager Andy McEntee broke down in his post-match interview, as he lamented the refereeing decisions he suggested has ended his team’s Championship campaign.
Roscommon referee Paddy Neilan received a Garda escort as he left the pitch following a contentious performance, which included awarding Meath a free instead of a penalty in the closing minutes of last night’s qualifier thriller in Navan.
When quizzed about the impact of some of Neilan’s decisions, McEntee shed a tear as he revealed the depth of his frustration. ‘They [Meath players] put in a massive effort and that’s the real disappointing thing, these fellas put their lives on hold and then the whole thing gets decided by a couple of very poor decisions,’ he said.
‘That’s the hard bit. Those fellas, they make a mistake, they pay the price out there. They miss a free or they drop a ball or foul somebody, they pay the price. What’s the price for what went on out there today?’ said McEntee, barely concealing his fury at Neilan’s performance.
And McEntee insisted that the injustice his team suffered was on a level with the umpiring error in the previous weekend’s Waterford-Tipperary tie.
‘That’s the problem, where do we go now? Where do we go now? We have to wait until next January until we play another game. That’s the killer. We had the same situation with Waterford last weekend but they have another game. They’ve a chance to put it right, we don’t. So we pay the ultimate price.’
Meanwhile, Tyrone ace, Conor McAliskey, insisted he never doubted his team would find a way into tomorrow’s second round draw, even though they were a point and a man down going into injury time at the end of 70 minutes.
‘I know this group of boys and I know that a lot of people are writing us off at the moment but I know how hard we worked,’ he said. ‘We kept our composure, kept believing in what we were doing and Cathal [McShane] got the score we needed at the end. We got a chance and thankfully we took it.
‘We expected this to be a battle. We played them over the last few years so we knew what to expect. They are a good tough team and we expected nothing else. It was get down here, get the win and get back up the road.’