Ref justice on Drogs as ‘big moments’ prove costly
DROGHEDA United boss
Tim Clancy spent most of last Friday’s Longford game standing on the extreme right of his dugout area - often in close conversation with fourth official Tom Dempsey.
The exchanges seemed cordial enough, but the Trim native certainly wasn’t talking about the weather or checking the score from the Portugal v Spain showdown in the World Cup!
Not for the first time this season the Drogs manager was left scratching his head over debatable decisions as his team suffered a second consecutive loss to go into the short summer break on a low ebb - albeit still second in the First Division table.
‘I’ll probably get myself in trouble, but it was a very, very frustrating night for us, with two big moments in the game,’ he told the Drogheda Independent after the 1-0 defeat.
‘For their goal it’s a free kick from out wide in our left-back area. Ciaran Kelly has made a tackle and the linesman is five yards away and has informed the referee that it’s a goal kick, but the referee - who’s 60 yards away - has overruled the linesman and given a free kick and none of their players appealed for it.
‘Listen, we didn’t defend it right and they scored which I think was their own chance in the game.
‘Then, right at the end Luke Gallagher’s played a brilliant ball in to Chris Lyons who’s slotted it in to equalise and the same linesman puts his flag up and the referee listens to him this time and disallows our goal.
‘Their players were coming off the pitch saying ‘Chris is onside’.’
Asked about his repeated interactions with Tom Dempsey on the sideline, Clancy continued: ‘The fourth official was agreeing with me. I was questioning him about the referee’s decisions and a lot of the time Tom was saying I totally agreed with you. I said to him ‘is there anything I can do then’ and he said there’s nothing I can do - the referee’s decision is final.
‘I think it would have finished one-all I probably still would have been upset because I thought we probably should have won the game.
‘We hit the woodwork twice in the first half, their keeper’s made a couple of great saves.
‘It’s baffling, it’s just inconsistency and in the home game against Longford we had a goal disallowed through Jake Hyland who, again, was two yards onside.
‘I just said to them [in the dressing-room] ‘there’s nothing I can say’. Everyone played really well - it was one of our better performances this season - but although we go into the break with a loss we’re still sitting in second place and I’m happy with that.’
It took a stoppage-time equaliser in that reverse fixture for Drogheda to snatch a point, and Clancy acknowledged that the midlanders have proved tough opposition this season.
‘Look, Longford are a very good team, but I genuinely feel that we could have won the game tonight and lads would have gone into the break full of confidence.
‘But they’ll get a week off now and we’ll recoup again and get the lads ready for the last 10 games of the season. We finish this round of games with Cobh at home and if we get a win there I think that’s two points off what we got in the first round of games which is good considering the venues we had to come to.
‘We’ll look to get in another good round of games and hopefully that will lead us near the play-offs.’
The Drogs have been fairly fortunate with injuries and suspensions so far this season, but Clancy is anxiously awaiting news of an MRI scan on Conor Kane who injured his knee playing for the Irish Colleges against their French counterparts last Tuesday at City Calling Stadium.
The injury isn’t as bad as first thought, but Kane wasn’t available for selection against Longford at the same venue three days later and is currently a doubt for the Cobh game on Friday week, and with Sean Brennan one game away from a suspension Clancy would like to strengthen his squad during the upcoming transfer window.
‘Hopefully we could do something and get a couple in because it’s quite a tight squad in fairness, but we’re aware there’ll be other teams in the league that will be able to spend a lot more money than us,’ he said.
‘So we’ll have to do a bit of shrewd business and look for a couple of players on loan, maybe, or from the Leinster Senior League. That’s what I’ll be looking at.
‘I think, with the season we’re having, a lot of the players that are playing week in week out are performing really well and possibly there might be a few there who aren’t getting games and might want to walk away and try and get football elsewhere, which is totally understandable.
‘But a few fresh faces might rejuvenate everyone again and give them a bit more energy.’
For their goal it’s a free kick from out wide in our left-back area. Ciaran Kelly has made a tackle and the linesman is five yards away and has informed the referee that it’s a goal kick, but the referee - who’s 60 yards away - has overruled the linesman and given a free kick