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*Patrick Crotty in possession for Scariff. Photograph: Joe Buckley
SCARIFF have said the decision to disallow a Mark Rodgers goal in the second half of their first round loss to Broadford was “very hard to take”.
Stressing that he was not taking the victory away from Broadford, Scariff manager Donal Moloney admitted they were disappointed with the decision not to award the green flag.
Rodgers had been through on goal and was fouled, referee Jarlath Donnellan appeared to signal advantage, allowing the Clare forward to get away from Eoghan Gunning before hitting the back of the net.
However once the sliotar ended up in Jack Lovett’s goal, the referee decided to award a free and the goal did not stand.
When asked about the decision, Donal told The Clare Echo, “that’s very hard to take but I am not going to take from Broadford and talk about those things. We had five goal chances and that one was in the net. Jarlath (Donnellan) blew it up, we can’t argue with it. It is what it is. Fair play to Broadford in terms of what they did”.
He continued, “A good few things went wrong for us but fair play to Broadford, they stuck at it and played really really well and full credit to them. They were very good today”.
Losing in the first round means Scariff “are on the back foot now,” the former Clare joint hurling manager noted. “That’s the reality, we have to knuckle down. We have good players, they have put in a significant shift already this year and they will do so again. Today was Broadford’s day”.
Up next they face an Éire Óg side managed by his good friend Gerry O’Connor, the duo led Clare to a historic three in a row at All-Ireland and Munster level with the county’s U21s from 2012 to 2014.”The focus now switches to champions Eire Og in the next round. We must take the learnings from today. Our next game won’t be easy but we will look forward to it”.
