Paul O’Keeffe: ‘I don’t know how many times I thought we were dead and buried’

Winning manager Paul O’Keeffe admits that he is not a fan of penalty shootouts to decide championship games

Penalty takers Michael Shields and John Kerins celebrate after the end of the shoot-out. Pic: Larry Cummins

Even though it was his team who came out the right side of this latest St Finbarr’s-Castlehaven penalty shootout, Barrs manager Paul O’Keeffe remains opposed to games being decided by penalties and would much prefer a third period of extra-time be played.

“I still think it’s an awful way to bloody well end it,” said O’Keeffe. “There was nothing between the two teams. And you end it like that then, it’s awful. I still think we should have a mechanism where we finish the game through some kind of play, even if it was another five minutes of extra-time or golden score or something where at least you feel like, ‘OK, they scored more than us, we were beaten’, whereas that is an awful way to do it.