Referee Duffy gave us nothing, grumbles Evans

John Evans took aim at referee Michael Duffy following an afternoon when nothing went right for his Roscommon team.

He also claimed a Mayo player — Enda Varley — dived for a free in the first half but accredited that to the opposition’s cuteness.

While acknowledging the might of Mayo’s performance, the Kerryman was livid with the Sligo official’s handling of the Connacht semi-final.

“It was just that Mayo physically imposed themselves, they imposed that physical power, in the tackle they absolutely cleaned us.

“We certainly did not get any break at all in terms of refereeing decisions. He just kept giving… we went into tackles and say we were tackled or mauled I am not sure but to be fair it was the power of Mayo so I wouldn’t just lay it on the doorstep of the referee. However, every decision seemed to go against us.

“We were competing at the start but look it is a very good Mayo team, they are three years down the road, they have worked very, very hard, they have a very strong panel and even though they are missing a couple of players, they were very impressive.

“They were bringing on guys there and it was a case of who was going to come on next and have a shot.”

Agreeing the 61 frees awarded in the game was excessive, Evans felt Duffy was unfair on his players.

“I am not going to take away from Mayo’s win but I was really, really annoyed in the first half by the amount of frees.

“I am telling you I don’t know what we were doing wrong. Did he think that we were doing the tackle the wrong way? But then again that allied with Mayo’s power, their physical power, it just made it easy to make those decisions.”

Evans was animated on the sideline in the 20th minute when Varley appeared to make a meal following a Roscommon challenge.

He felt the Mayo corner-forward had dived to win a free: “Yeah, but that’s experience too. They’ll use that experience later on in their campaign.”

After a second consecutive mauling by Mayo in the Connacht competition, Evans accepts there’s a considerable gap between James Horan’s side and the rest.

“Look, there’s such a gulf between the two teams, lads, but — and I’m not going to nitpick — the only thing I was annoyed about the whole day was the decision-making (by the referee).”

Evans underlined the importance for his players to recover in the second round of the qualifiers next month.

“Get back up on the horse, start to train, make our young lads stronger. There’s no point in having height if you don’t have strength and mobility. Look at (Mayo’s) Lee Keegan and (Colm) Boyle and Keith Higgins: they don’t have height but they have power and strength and pace, which is beautiful to watch.

“I know these guys; they’ve committed very well to it. They’re young — most of the panel — and there’s a new system of training they’re enjoying and I think that’s half the battle. You saw in the first 20 minutes they really were loving being out there and playing.”