Mountbellew-Moylough left incensed over referee calls

Mountbellew- Moylough       

John McIntyre at Hyde Park

IN a compelling Connacht Club Senior Football Semi-Final where the margins were so tight, any contentious refereeing decisions always had the potential to swing the contest one way or the other.

The fact that Jerome Henry’s final whistle was greeted by a cacophony of boos from the big Mountbellew-Moylough contingent at Hyde Park on Saturday tells you which semi-finalists were left with grievances over several of the Mayo official’s decisions, especially late on.

Their sense of injustice was understandable. Nearly all the big calls appeared to go against the Galway champions down the home stretch when the outcome was still on a knife edge.

Such was the depth of frustration over the manner of their somewhat surprising defeat, several irate Mountbellew-Moylough players surrounded the referee in an unedifying spectacle at the end of a hard-fought struggle. Fortunately, the incident didn’t get any further out of hand.

Henry still had to be escorted from the field in a scene reminiscent of another controversial provincial clash between the champions of Galway and Roscommon in 2011. Ten years ago, it was Corofin who were taking their ire out on referee Liam Devenney after narrowly losing a fractious affair to St Brigid’s in Kiltoom.

Mountbellew-Moylough left fuming over two late decisions in particular, both involving the same player. Firstly, he didn’t award a free to Barry McHugh after he looked to have been blatantly fouled before ignoring what appeared a legitimate mark from the corner forward close to the Pearses’ posts.

The teams were deadlocked at 1-7 each and had McHugh being awarded that mark it would have left him with a relatively routine opportunity of probably winning the day for Mountbellew-Moylough. Instead, Pearses were the ones who were afforded a final chance of setting up a showdown with Knockmore of Mayo.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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