BOHEMIANS MANAGER KEITH Long bemoaned the fact his side were not awarded a penalty in the first-half of a 1-0 derby defeat to Shamrock Rovers last night.
Bohs fell to a narrow loss courtesy of Rory Gaffney’s first-half goal, but saw furious appeals for a penalty waved away shortly before half-time when Kris Twardek went down in the box following a collision with Rovers defender Lee Grace.
“It was a penalty”, said Long. “You guys saw it as well as I did. We shouldn’t be bemoaning the referees but we are again, unfortunately. We want the league to improve, to prosper; we want to raise the bar and raise the standards – look at the stadium tonight, a full house, rocking, a great stadium, and this is the example for every other club to aspire to – but we shouldn’t come away talking about the decisions of the officials.
“It’s not really acceptable at this point.”
Rovers boss Stephen Bradley said the referee got the decision correct, as did Grace himself.
“No. Bit of a wrestle. I knew he was there but I just couldn’t see him, so I put my arm out and held him off and then kicked it away with my left leg.”
Bohs battled throughout the second half but struggled to carve out many clear-cut chances, and Long admitted his side missed striker Promise Omochere, suspended after a contentious sending off against Finn Harps for two yellow cards.
“There’s no doubt we missed Promise tonight”, said Long.
“Any team would miss his physicality, his power, his pace, his quality. He is coming on leaps and bounds and we missed him tonight, again as a result of a shocking decision last week where the referee is conned a little bit, with opposition players feigning injury. I’m writing the headlines for you tomorrow, but we want the leads to prosper and the standards to improve and the levels of officiating needs to improve.
“Rob [Hennessy] is one of the best referees in the country. Ben Connolly, the official… they are good lads, but tonight, in my view, they got the decision wrong. We missed Promise tonight, it’s hard on Ryan Cassidy to come in and start a game like this. I thought he did okay, he did quite well at times. It’s a difficult game for him to come into, the pace and tempo that this derby is played at. I thought overall our performance in the second half was really positive, really good.”
Bradley, meanwhile, revealed after the game that his matchwinner Gaffney wasn’t expected to play the game as late as this morning, but played through the pain barrier having carried a knock through training all week.
Both sides face a quick turnaround with Rovers away to Dundalk on Monday night while Bohs host Shelbourne.
“We have got nothing from tonight’s game”, said Long, “but the good thing about playing Friday/Monday is that we have to focus very quickly on Shelbourne and get ourselves ready.”
