WESTMEATH FOOTBALL MANAGER Dermot McCabe has expressed his frustration over a late controversial goal which proved decisive in their clash against Meath.

Conor Duke’s goal was the last kick of the game as the Royals clinched a 3-14 to 1-17 victory to maintain their drive for promotion out of Division 2. Westmeath are still without any points.

McCabe argued after the game that the score should not have stood as it occurred after the 70 minutes had elapsed. 

“I’m just frustrated for the lads,” McCabe told RTÉ Sport. “You know, they put in a huge effort. We’ve had setback after setback with injuries and even two of our players, Ronan Wallace and Kevin O’Sullivan, pulled up in the warm-up and weren’t able to start the game.

“I would have felt that the rule is the rule, when the hooter goes on 70 and you score it on 70:03, then it’s not a goal.

“The second point is that we had an arm up, the advantage is meant to go on for 10 seconds,  but three seconds later, there was a free out.

“I’m sure there’ll be reasons, I’m sure the FRC will get around to it and they’ll apologize or something like that tonight.”

Commenting on the pressure that referees face in adjusting to the new rules, McCabe continued:

“It’s really difficult for the ref. I said that it’s going to be hugely difficult for the ref, that they have hundreds of extra decisions.

“There was a huge Meath support here, I couldn’t hear myself talk and it was impossible to hear the hooter.

“But that’s the system and that’s it. It’s not that these weren’t identified as problems before thing started.

“I wouldn’t really blame anyone, but I do feel that probably Westmeath will be brushed off and if maybe it was another team there might be a little bit of an uproar about it.”