Brian McIver may face action after David Coldrick’s criticism

Referee David Coldrick could be at the centre of a second derogatory comments case after Brian McIver’s post-match interviews in Omagh on Saturday.

The Derry manager was frustrated with the Meath official’s decision to award a last-gasp free against his son Michael McIver for a foul on Tyrone’s Tiernan McCann, which Darren McCurry converted to deny the visitors a victory. McIver said: “The free kick at the end, we had turned the ball over and our man was fouled on the way out. It should have been a free to us and it’s game over. It was a hometown decision.”

McIver made the same “hometown” comment in an interview with RTÉ’s League Sunday and it may be interpreted by the Central Competitions Control Committee that he called the integrity of Coldrick into question.

Strong criticism of Coldrick after last month’s Division 3 round one defeat to Armagh saw Tipperary manager Peter Creedon banned from the sideline for Sunday’s loss to Fermanagh in Brewster Park.

Last week, McIver said he was mystified by the Central Hearings Committee’s decision not to overturn a red card handed out to Mark Lynch in their defeat to Kerry last month. Derry are bottom of Division 1 with just a point from three games.

Saturday’s game was Coldrick’s first game in Healy Park since last year’s drawn Tyrone-Down Ulster first round game when he failed to black card Down’s Conor Maginn for deliberately pulling down Mark Donnelly for a penalty. Maginn later scored a goal which had a bearing on the outcome.

Coldrick later admitted he made a mistake. He recalled the criticism of him at the time: “We don’t go out purposely to make mistakes on any decision and black cards are no different. We don’t always get things right and we have to accept when we get things wrong but in some cases it becomes more personal than it should do. In my case, I made a mistake early on in the championship and I have to put my hands up to that mistake.”