I am the ref: Derry’s criticism of Lane partly justified

Conor Lane came in for a lot of criticism from Derry manager Brian McIver after Saturday’s qualifier against Galway. Was it with justification?

Well, in the 18th minute Derry’s midfielder Niall Holly was fouled and received no free. An easy free was then awarded to Galway and brought forward for Paul Conroy to score. In the 29th minute, Brendan Rogers was incorrectly shown a black card. In the 49th minute, Danny Cummins was lucky to have been awarded a free as no clear foul was committed on him. Having watched it a number of times, it was not a penalty to Caolan O’Boyle in the 61st minute. While there was contact between him and Finian Hanley before the ball was crossed, O’Boyle went to ground very easily. My rule of thumb for a penalty is that you have to be 100% sure the foul has been committed.

In the Ulster final, David Coldrick made a good spot on Paul Durcan for touching the ball on the ground, giving Monaghan a 13m free. In the 19th minute, Michael Murphy could have picked up a card for body collides on Conor McManus and Darren Hughes but I’m not certain either were black card offences.

One could ask why 42 seconds were played over the additional one minute in the first half when McManus scored Monaghan’s eighth point?

In the 50th minute, Donegal’s Frank McGlynn was fouled by Monaghan substitute Ryan McAnespie but got no free. Anthony Thompson was unfortunate being blown for a foul in the 70th minute as Donegal chased an equaliser.

David Gough continued his impressive refereeing season in the Tipperary-Tyrone game although Mattie Donnelly should have received a yellow in the seventh minute for a foul on Colin O’Riordan. He correctly blew two hops in the 55th and 71st minutes and worked well with linesman Cormac Reilly for Liam Casey’s 55th minute red card.

Padraig O’Sullivan had the easiest game of the weekend in Roscommon. If he blew Keith Higgins for a double hop in the 64th minute, it was incorrect.