Brian McEniff won’t ever forget pain of 2005 loss to Armagh

The lid was flipped. The usually unruffled Brian McEniff had blown his right off.

There are things he was prepared to let slide but after seeing three of his players sent off he wasn’t for holding back when asked to discuss Donegal’s 2005 Ulster semi-final replay defeat to Armagh.

“I have always maintained that an Ulster man should referee these games,” he said. “That was no advantage to anybody, that refereeing performance, and I felt we suffered. I felt that where Armagh had the upper hand for much of the game, we had an opportunity to take scores and couldn’t because Armagh players were hanging out of us, and we didn’t get a free. What happens in that case? Players get frustrated.”

Ten years before managers were forced to mind their p’s and q’s when speaking about match officials, McEniff’s words acted as a scathing critique of Laois referee Maurice Deegan’s position.

Now as Meath man David Coldrick is set to take charge of tomorrow’s pressure cooker Ulster quarter-final between the counties, the 1992 All-Ireland winning manager maintains his stance.

But his remarks were more about Deegan who he felt had wronged Donegal.

“We drew the first day, Kevin Cassidy got sent off. We were five points up and they came back to draw it. We had three men sent off in the second game, which was unusual for us. My parting shot to the players in the hotel before they went out was ‘keep your mouth shut, keep your hands down, don’t get yourself or any of the opposition sent off. If you go to ground because you are hurt roll over, get up and get on with it’.

“They were my exact words. Maurice Deegan and I never got on.”

McEniff should have been used to seeing his players fall foul of disciplinary decisions against Armagh. Raymond Sweeney’s red card in the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final remains one of the most contentious decisions in Donegal football and proved to be turning point of the game. “He was never sent off in his life before that,” comments McEniff now. But if losing Cassidy for the provincial replay two years later wasn’t bad enough, things were to get worse in the replay six days later. At half-time, McEniff and his friend, opposing manager Joe Kernan rowed after the Bundoran man had remonstrated with Deegan. McEniff and his selector John Cunningham on separate occasions became embroiled in shouting matches with Kieran McGeeney.

Eamon McGee and Brian Roper saw the line for double yellow card offences in the second half before Adrian Sweeney was shown a straight red card with 13 minutes to go. Armagh’s Francie Bellew was also ordered off .

Deegan, meanwhile, had lost the respect of both teams although the sense of grievance has never left McEniff. “Eamon McGee was only a young fella and when he got sent off we didn’t even get time to make a change. (Steven) McDonnell had gone to ground in a heap like he was dead and the next thing he had the ball in the Donegal net before I even had a sub in.

“That’s what gets you cross.” Donegal’s only score from play that day in Clones was Brendan Devenney’s goal. They had otherwise been suffocated into submission by Armagh. McGeeney, so crucial as captain in that rearguard action, now mans the sideline. Ciaran McKeever was on the panel that year but Andy Mallon is the only survivor from the team that started the replay.

However, Donegal have five survivors — Karl Lacey, McGee, Neil Gallagher, Christy Toye and Colm McFadden.

“Paul Durcan was also in the squad and Ryan Bradley who won an All-Ireland medal in 2012,” adds McEniff.

“A lot of them won a National League under Brian McIver in 2008. I would have had McFadden and Toye of the 2003 U21 team on the senior team when we got to the All-Ireland semi-final that year. Rory Kavanagh was another one who’s gone now.”

It might 10 years on but after last season’s All-Ireland quarter-final where there were few pleasantries exchanged the sight of one another is sure to raise the animosity levels again.

Context isn’t supposed to matter to referees but Coldrick won’t need to be reminded that in this case it does. “It’s going to be a tough game,” McEniff says.

“The Athletic Grounds is a tight pitch. You could say that it suits Donegal but I don’t think it suits any particular team. It makes it quite intimidating to play in. I remember Kerry, even at their height in the 1970s, couldn’t win in Armagh. Dublin were the same. Anything won there will be hard won.” Hard fought too..