O’Loughlin Gaels selector fumes at 'ridiculous' decision not to award Owen Wall goal

RIDICULOUS: Owen Wall of O'Loughlin Gaels claims the ball has crossed the line. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

O’Loughlin Gaels selector Nigel Skehan described the decision not to award Owen Wall a first-half goal as “ridiculous”.

Replays showed Fintan Burke had not been able to prevent Wall’s shot from crossing the goal-line. However, the umpires adjudged that the sliotar had not fully passed the whitewash at the Hill 16 end and play continued despite pleas from the O’Loughlin Gaels sideline for referee Seán Stack to review the footage on the large screens.

Skehan, who also felt Stack was wrong to send off St Thomas’ James Regan early in the second half, told KCLR: “Unfortunately, there was a massive call missed in the first-half with the goal decision. 

"A ridiculous decision, to be honest with you, and I'm going to be straight about it, I'm not going to beat about the bush - a ridiculous decision.

“How they got it wrong I have no idea. Look, there were other decisions, I wouldn't think the sending off was a sending off either, to be fair to James Regan. There were a lot of heavy hits in the game. Probably unfortunate really that he got a red card.

“But yeah, as I say, we'll go back to the goal decision... look, we didn't play well enough in the second half, we weren't good enough on the ball. We probably lost the game... lost a bit of structure when they lost the man. Just hugely disappointing.”

St Thomas’ manager Kenneth Burke felt the non-goal decision didn’t overshadow what followed.

“At the time I didn’t know it went in. if it did go in, sometimes you get the rub of the green, other times you don’t. You just have to adapt and keep going. I suppose it had no real effect on the game after that. It was point for point. Both teams were getting good scores and it was a battle around the middle.”

Burke took issue with Regan’s red card for a high shoulder on Jack Nolan.

“I don’t think he connected with him really. It looked bad at the time but I thought it was harsh – I thought there were other tackles in the game that were similar.

“The referee only sees it once – he has to make the decision. But I don’t think he caught him at all. So we were very disappointed with the decision at the time."

Going down a player, the extra responsibility feel on the inside forwards.

“We didn’t make too many changes, to be honest,” said Burke. “The lads were playing four across the half-forward line because that’s where their big threat was.

"With only two inside, Conor (Cooney) ended up in his own a bit so we just got one of them to split (marking Paddy) Deegan and the corner-back between them.”