CROSSMAGLEN SENIOR FOOTBALL co-manager John McEntee has branded Dromintee’s behaviour in last night’s Armagh club championship match as an “absolute disgrace”.
The 41-time provincial champions were scheduled to face their opponents at the Athletics Ground but a group of Dromintee’s players were unavailable as they were attending a wedding.
Instead of leaving themselves open to a ban from the Armagh county board, the club decided to field a makeshift side including a number of men wearing jeans and normal footwear.
The game effectively became a training session for Crossmaglen, who recorded a 1-8 to 0-0 victory in bizarre circumstances.
“They’re great fellas that they would come out and do this for their club but to think that a senior team would embarrass themselves and their community, completely disrespect us and the county football structure as a whole is incredible,” McEntee told Manus Loughran.
“Had Dromintee not fielded, they would have been suspended for six months. Rather than having their juvenile teams thrown out of the championship or suspended from football for six months, their committee members and a collection of the guys from in and around Dromintee decided to come out and effectively humiliate themselves in front of an audience, which is actually an absolute disgrace.”
When asked what he would do in a similar situation, McEntee added: “Fairly simple, you would have turned up and played the match. You probably would have used it as motivation if you thought that there was an injustice done. I’m not sure there is.
You wouldn’t disgrace your club the way those boys have done.
“We haven’t had a competitive match in three weeks and we’re not having one today. We’ve two more weeks until we play the next round of the championship and it’s not ideal preparation but we just have to get on with it.”
