Kerry FC boss Dennehy explains the reason for Longford Town post match melee

PROPER PROCESS: Kerry FC manager Billy Dennehy said the club will be going through the proper channels in relation to an incident in their game against Longford. Pic: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD .

A visibly upset Kerry FC boss Billy Dennehy claimed that the unsavoury post match incidents that marred the home side’s scoreless draw with Longford Town were as a result of an unacceptable comment made to one his players during the closing stages of the game. This resulted in an all in melee between both sets of players on the back pitch leading the dressingroms after which referee Oliver Moran is believed to have flashed at least three yellow cards. 

Dennehy spoke about reason for the unsavoury scenes post match “It was very competitive and, obviously, there at the end, I had to speak to the players they’re very upset. There was an unacceptable comment made and we’ll follow up through proper channels. 

"For me, from my point of view as manager of the club, I’ve always said that the players on the pitch you have to be like a group of brothers. And sometimes in your own house, in your own training, you might disagree with your brother, but out on the pitch, out in the game, you back your brother no matter what. 

"I’m very proud of the way the players backed each other. It’s, obviously, very unfortunate the way that finished, because I don’t want that to be the talking point to take away from the performance, because the performance was absolutely excellent tonight. I felt that the players were brilliant on the pitch.” 

When asked what the nature of the comment was, the distraught Kerry boss would only say “Yeah, look, we’re going to go through the proper channels as a club and the referee’s been made aware of this, the guards have been made aware of this, we’ll go through all the proper channels than we can, but we will protect our player 100%.” 

Dennehy went on “It’s unspeakable, words can’t even comprehend it, but we as a club now we’ll go through proper channels now we’ll do absolutely everything to protect our player and look I’m very, very proud of the players, the way they performed tonight. 

"When we’re coming into these games, in this league, they’re never seems to be any issues when we’re losing three or four or five-nil. These issues only seem to come up when we’re competitive, and we’re here to win. We have got a few bad beatings this year and we have been beaten heavily, everyone can see we’re not giving up here.

"There’s no quit in us, there’s no quit in this team, we’re only starting. They’re all kids in there; they’re only starting out their careers. Very proud of how they performed tonight on the pitch and you know it’s a lot for us to build on for the remaining games of the season.” 

When asked how the player who is alleged to have been the recipient of the unacceptable comment was feeling, Dennehy said he was upset “Of course, obviously, and as I said I spoke to him afterwards and we’ll follow up as a club now and we’ll go through all the proper channels that we have to do and we’ve done everything absolutely to the full extent that we can so far and we’ll be following up on all those processes in the coming days. 

"It is, but it takes just one moment to spoil any occasion in anything and it has to a certain extent, but I want to remind the players of how well they did tonight, because they were outstanding.” 

Gardai attended the incident and visited both dressing rooms. Kerry FC is expected to issue a statement on Saturday based on advice from the FAI.