Garrycastle boss hits out over added time

Garrycastle manager Gary Dolan was clearly and understandably upset after his side's controversial defeat to Mullingar Shamrocks in last Saturday's Westmeath SFC quarter-final.

The Mullingar team's winning goal, scored by Brian Guerin to leave a final score of 2-16 to 1-17, came well after the allocated four minutes of stoppage time had been played.

It seemed certain that Garrycastle's Michael Monaghan had kicked the winning point with four minutes of injury-time played. But referee Alan Coyne allowed play to continue following the resulting kickout - ‘a minimum of four minutes’ of added time had been announced - and Shamrocks were duly rewarded for their never-say-die attitude as Guerin found the net.

Dolan initially accepted that “it was a fantastic game as matches between ourselves and Mullingar Shamrocks have been over the years – clean football between two good footballing sides”.

However, the elephant in the room was the amount of added time played and, in this regard, the former Westmeath player was adamant that his team had been badly treated.

“When the keeper (Ross Corroon) kicked the ball out, the game was over, there was four minutes and 20 seconds extra played,” said Dolan, who blasted the referee’s decision to allow play to continue as “a joke”.

“It’s sickening, but in knockout football there’s only one happy team at the end. But it leaves a sour taste when it finishes like that,” he added.

Reflecting on what had happened prior to Brian Guerin’s killer goal, Dolan opined: “I thought our performance was good and I thought we had won the game (with Michael Monaghan’s point). Our bench improved things over the last 10/15 minutes, so that worked a treat.”

Looking to the future, the losing bainisteoir name-checked some of his younger stars. “There’s loads of young talent in the side, and loads of young talent coming through next year as well. It’s a bright future for Garrycastle,” he concluded.