‘The ref gave us nothing. Time and again I was illegally manhandled’

CORK WEREN’T alone in voicing their anger at referee Brian Gavin at the final whistle.

Waterford’s top scorer with a goal and three points, all from play, Dan Shanahan was adamant that he was “hard done-by” by the match official and was denied “several” frees he had legitimately earned in both halves.

“I’m sore and bruised all over but I’ll be right for the next day. Bring it on,” he said. “The referee gave us nothing all day. Time and time again I was illegally manhandled but the referee just didn’t want to know. I didn’t know what I had to do to earn a free.”

Regarding THAT free at the death which set up the replay, Shanahan was in no doubt that “this once” the referee got it right.

“Of course it was a free in,” he said. “You just can’t lie on top of the ball and expect to get away with it.”

His 10th-minute goal strike, his sixth in three championship games this year, was a big lift to him personally, but while he also tagged on three superb points from play, Shanahan stressed that the Waterford attack isn’t all about him.

“I’m enjoying my hurling, but all round me I have great players and we try to play as a team rather than as individuals,” he said.

About the last-gasp chance that saw Eoin McGrath go for a goal rather than the secure alternative of a certain point, Shanahan said the Mount Sion club man was right to do what he did.

“It was a great goal chance at a time when we would have won the game if it came off,” he said. “Of course he was right to go for it and he was only denied by a wonder save by Donal Óg Cusack.

“I’ll not be knocking him for doing what he did and neither will anyone else in the camp. Did not our equaliser come from it in the end?”

Shanahan is not overly concerned about date or venue for the replay. “We’ll be well up for it and that’s for sure,” he promised.

And the outcome? “There’s nothing more than a puck of the ball between us. I just hope it will be our turn to celebrate the next day.”