Apparently Mike Flanagan has been coaching the Ballygunner Hurling team since we gave him the boot.I don't know what ye made of the county final but Iorfa wasn't much good at full forward!
the new blues fanzine will hopefully have issue #3 on sale at the next home match, if you cnnot get to the game or you want and old back issue or a subscription please contact btid@oceanfree.net
Well it's happened again. a dodgy decision by a dodgy linesman in a game with a dodgy referee.
Waterford defence hold the line, man flagged offside, then the flag is lowered. Waterford caught standing, ball in the back of the net.
SICKENING.
In fairness the Blues didn't really look like scoring, with just one clear chance and a couple of ambitious long range shots.
But to loose a game in such circumstances is like a kick in the balls.
We'll I suppose it will teach the blues to play for the whistle and not the linesmans flag.
...about 15 minutes into the second half Dundalk were on the attack there were 2 players in an obvious offside position. The linesman spotted this and duly raised his flag.
The Blues defence and also the Dundalk attack spotted this flag so stopped playing, with the exception of a couple of Dundalk players kept playing, like you do and had a shot, of course Mick Devine (and the rest of the Blues defence thought that that this goal would be immediately disallowed so didn't bother defending it.. then to the amazement to all the players/staff and fans (of both sides) the referee gave the goal -- we still weren't worried because we thought the ref hadn't seen the flag and as soon as he had talked to the linesman the goal would be disallowed.
However as soon as the goal went in the linesman then dropped his flag and ran back to the halfway line as if he had never raised it! The Blues players then ran over to the linesman to tell him to talk to the ref but he flatly denied ever having his flag raised! The ref than came over and again he denied having his flag up! So the goal stood.
Crawley plays ball through, Ward is clearly offside. Linesman raises flag as Ward is offside, ball is nowhere near him however. Martin Reilly who the ball was intended for runs on through, he definitely did not know about a flag the way he took the ball in and finished it. The referee waves away linesmans flag, presumably saying that Ward was not interfering with play. So, technically, the goal was legal as Ward was not interfering with play, the linesman got it wrong by raising his flag in the first place causing confusion.
Anyway, I hear Waterford are thinking of protesting, well, you'll have no success you can be sure but if a replay is ordered I think we'd win again, the better team definitely won last night, you cannot argue about that. Although I think Waterford are definitely favourites to go up alongside us.
I didn't see exactly who was offside, but the ref didn't wave the original flag off. He never saw it. He had his back to the linesman before the linesman took down his flag. As for not interfering with play, any player will tell you that unless an opponent is lying down half dead at the corner flag, he will draw the attention of defenders and affect the goalkeepers orientation and positioning, which is definitely interfering.
Certainly, Dundalk did have more chances in the second half, but only because Waterford had to open up so much to try to get a goal back.
Nobody likes losing, but losing in such circumstances is especially irritating.
Blues should have won by more. St. Fransic didn't offer much opposition.
Watson looked good- very confident.
Rennie's not up for it. But do we have an experienced midfielder to replace him?
Also why was Kevin O'Brien taken off at half time- at that stage he was only one who had threatened the goal?
I heard some talk the weekend about the Blues hunting for a new ground. The benefits of this would be obvious, such as qualification for lotto money, maybe a bar licence etc. But does anyone know of the proposed location of the blues potential new home??