Says it all, really.

[avvenalaf]

Sligo Rovers 1-2 Shamrock Rovers
Comments0 comments
by Extratime Team
Sat, Jul 03 2010
Dublin referee Richie Winter was the centre of attention on Friday night in The Showgrounds as Shamrock Rovers came from behind to take all three points.

Alan Keane, returning from suspension, headed past his own keeper to cancel Eoin Doyle’s opener and former Sligo Rovers midfielder Chris Turner scored a controversial header, earning the visitors the spoils.

The opening 25 minutes was a cagey affair, with Shamrock Rovers putting Billy Dennehy to good use down the left wing. Opposite winger Paddy Kavanagh had the first real change to open the scoring on 20 minutes. Robert Bayly intercepted a Richie Ryan pass in his own half and set Kavanagh bearing down on goal. The former Bray man danced around Danny Ventre and with just Richard Brush to beat, he couldn’t keep his shot on target.

Four minutes later and Eoin Doyle scored his 4th goal for the season. A Joseph Ndo corner from the left found the former Hoop alone at the back post to head home.

The home side were reduced to ten men on 37 minutes when referee Richie Winter deemed Gavin Peer’s late challenge on Billy Dennehy a red card offence. Rovers fans who attended last Augusts’ EA Sports Cup semi-final will remember the same official controversially sending off Martin Camano in Dalymount Park.

The red card forced Paul Cook to send on defender Derek Foran in place of winger John Dillon. The first half ended with chances at both ends; Richard Brush saving a point blank header from Gary Twigg, Billy Dennehy rifling a shot from distance off the up-right following a wrongly awarded throw-in to the Dublin side and Eoin Doyle volleyed wide as he looked for a second.

Michael O’Neill wasn’t looking for a share of the points as he brought on attacker Thomas Stewart for defender Danny Murphy at the break. And they should have gone 2-1 up in the opening minutes of the second half when Gary Twigg put Robert Bayly in, but his tame shot was easy for Brush to collect.

The sides were level on 54 minutes. Alan Keane rose to prevent Gary Twigg getting on the end of a Billy Dennehy cross but instead the ball came off the Rovers defenders’ head and into the top corner, leaving Brush helpless.

Despite the numerical disadvantage the home side kept the foot on the gas. The league’s top scorer Padraig Amond was proving his worth all over the pitch, mopping up at the back, creating chances and doing his best to get on the end of things.

On 61 minutes Chris Turner, who turned his back on a return to the Showgrounds before the start of the season converted a controversial header. His effort initially hit the cross bar, but the referees assistant deemed the ball crossed the goal line as it rebounded off the ground.

New signing for the Bit O’Red, Lee McEvilly made his debut five minutes later, coming on for Eoin Doyle. The former Accrington Stanley striker, with a senior Northern Ireland cap to his name, forced Alan Mannus into a save minutes after his introduction. McEvilly showed he can create chances too, crossing from the right only for Amond to mis-time a diving header by a split second.

However, with just under half an hour remaining referee Richie Winter left the home fans irate. He failed to award a spot kick after John Russell went down in the box. The midfielder beat three Shamrock Rovers players in quick succession but was clearly brought down inside the area.

The 10 men of Sligo Rovers dominated the remainder of the game setting up camp in the visitors half of the pitch. It was testament to the quality in Paul Cook’s side, they remained calm, sticking resolutely to their passing game in search of the elusive equaliser which alas, was not to come

Sligo Rovers: R Brush, A Keane, D Ventre, G Peers, I Davoren, J Dillon (D Foran 38), J Russell (C O’Grady 87), J Ndo, R Ryan, E Doyle (L McEvilly65), P Amond.

Shamrock Rovers: A Mannus, C Sives, A Price, D Murray (T Stewart HT), D Murphy, B Dennnehy (S Rice 76), J Chambers (P Flynn 85), C Turner.

Extratime Man Of The Match: John Russell
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[Oldred]

Have to agree. That says it all! As someone who has been following the bit o' red for more than forty years I still cannot understand how any governing body can appoint an official who has in the past been so controversial to a tie which is always a melting pot waiting to boil over. I thought we had advanced from the days of Carpenter et al in the way we trained and monitored the performance of our referees, but alas I have obviously been very naive. Apart from the loss of the points which we badly need, the serious side of this is that some day refereeing like this is going to see a return to pitch invasions etc. like we had in the seventies eg. Markets Field in Limerick. The FAI have to stop guys like Winter who was clearly inciting violence in what is supposedly "the beautiful game". Nothing beautiful in his ineptitude.

[jc46]

how right you are! thieves like winter should not be let away with this. cook should issue a statement to the press, stating in no uncertain terms that rovers will not play a game if winter is ref. no way should we take this lying down. i wonder would turner's goal be allowed if it had come from us.

[Oldred]

Stop wondering jc. You already know the answer !!!

[red arrow]

firstly we should wait and see the highlights on m.n.s tomorrow evening. if it clearly shows that we should have got a peno and wnters had a clear view of the play and did'nt give it , i feel the club should take some course of action as we all know that this guy has caused us problems before. the second incident i.e. ball not crossing the line , if this proves to be the case well then it only further strengthens our position with regard to a complaint. we must have the facts first before any of us can make a complaint.

[oldrover]

I agree with above comments about waiting for mns ( although mns may have a tendency of giving shams the benefit of any doubts) but i think the club should not lie down in the face of unfair treatment by Winters....it is too costly for our club trying to survive.Should the feelings of the vast majority of our fans not be brought to the attention of the powers that be including mns for that matter

[oldrover]

incidentally the foul mouthed comments of shams manager o neill (clearly audible in the red stand) also left a lot to be desired

[Oldred]

Of course we'll watch mns with interest but the pundits have absolutely no power whatsoever to stop injustice happening in the future. Mns need to have representatives of the Fai and the Referees society on the show to explain to the ordinary fans of this sport how they are capable or otherwise of handling situations like this. It must be remembered that Football is an industry creating employment and bad decisions by officials can have a disastrous effect on many lives. We have had enough clubs experiencing financial problems and going to the wall of late. Football is a results-driven business and decisions taken by match officials have to be correct at least 90% of the time (allowing for human error) and must be capable of being reviewed afterwards and explained to the clubs involved.

[poster]

O'Neill is an arrogant little *****, along with some of his players and supporters. But no matter how much the other clubs protest or complain, nothing will ever be done, nothing will ever be said to them. By rights, if Deering had a spine, or if another fourth official was in place O'Neill would have a 5 match ban and a large fine to go with it. Don't worry though, we'll have our revenge someday. Please God it'll be some time soon.

[avvenalaf]

O'Neill is an arrogant little *****, along with some of his players and supporters. But no matter how much the other clubs protest or complain, nothing will ever be done, nothing will ever be said to them. By rights, if Deering had a spine, or if another fourth official was in place O'Neill would have a 5 match ban and a large fine to go with it. Don't worry though, we'll have our revenge someday. Please God it'll be some time soon.

Poster, I don't want to discourage you but I have been saying that since 1954