Stephen McConnell slams poor officiating in what he deemed was a 'great spectacle'

Letterkenny Rovers manager Stephen McConnell was incredibly disappointed with the officiating on display in Saturday’s Ulster Junior Cup final encounter with Buncrana Hearts.  

The two heavy-weight Donegal sides contested an exciting finale at Diamond Park in Ballyare. The two outfits were level at 2-2 following the conclusion of extra-time before the Buncrana men sealed victory courtesy of a 7-6 penalty shootout win.  

The Letterkenny Rovers boss was pleased with the fight and heart which his men showed in Saturday’s cup showdown, feeling that they may have deserved victory with the performance they showed towards the end of the game. 

“We battled well, we dominated that second half and fought like trojans. In extra time we probably deserved the win but that’s football unfortunately.” 

The Letterkenny men took an early lead through a Lee McMonagle penalty before their opponents hit the front with a goal on the stroke of half-time and a second mid-way through the second stanza.  

McConnell stated that going behind in the match gave his side a wake-up call and they showed character to dig in and find an equaliser to force extra-time. 

“I felt that the second goal gave us a kick up the backside. Once that second goal went in for them we dug in, rolled the sleeves up and went at them. We got our deserved goal and probably unlucky not to nick it then at the end.” 

One thing he was not pleased with however, was the officiating on the day and one particular moment that he discussed where referee Alister Gourley halted substitute Henry Welles from taking a vital spot-kick in the shootout for a number of minutes, over a substitute confusion, before letting the midfielder continue and he subsequently missed the penalty. 

“It comes down to this, it’s bad on both sides to say the referee was a disgrace. And then what happened in the penalty shootout, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen”, said O’Connell. 

He continued, “He tried to say our player never came on the pitch, he said our number 18, who wasn’t togged, came on instead of him. They stopped the lad from taking the penalty for two minutes and then he missed, that’s in his head.” 

The displeased manager went on to discuss how the poor officiating during the encounter took away from the fantastic spectacle on display due to all of the post-match discussion fixed firmly on the referee and the decisions made. 

“Overall it was shambolic refereeing. The referee assessor who appointed him was quick to get out of here and both teams are in agreement. The whole talk is about the referee, it’s not about the game of football and that’s a disgrace because that was a great watch for a neutral. It was a proper battle but the refereeing was a mess.” 

The Division One champions don’t have too much time to ponder on Saturday’s cup disappointment however, with a local derby with Bonagee United in the Brian McCormick Cup on the horizon. 

“Yeah, I had a wee word with them there in the changing room. We go again Thursday, we’ve Bonagee United in the Brian McCormick Cup. There’s no bigger game, our local derby. Two teams that have just gone up from Division One and going to the Premier Division now so it’ll be a good game, another battle for us.”