Louth beaten by Kerry on an afternoon where the referee became the talking point

When you’re trying to perform and survive at the highest level. When you’re attempting to break into a class you haven’t been in for longer than most observers can remember. When your aim is to live with the Kingdom. When you’re putting your life on hold, as a player, to raise the profile and stature of your county. You need to get fair play from the man in the middle.

Supporters flocked to O’Moore Park on Sunday afternoon either hoping to witness The David Clifford Show or The Upset Of The Championship Summer. Instead, they were treated to A Day In The Life Of Conor Lane.

The Cork official took centre stage and incensed the Louth faithful with an error-strewn display that would make you question his appointment to matches of this magnitude moving forth.

It is never nice to have to analyse a person’s performance so forensically. They are a human being and have a family and circle of friends who have feelings too, but, equally, the Louth players and management, who devote such time and effort to the cause, deserve to be given the right of equal opportunity, which they evidently weren’t on a day where Kerry were, without question, fully worth their victory and comfortably the better side.

Donal McKenny scored a sixth minute goal having escaped the clutches of Kerry ’keeper Shane Ryan, who had a firm grip of his legs at one point. The man in the middle hesitated when it seemed as though he was preparing to award a penalty and while allowing the play to flow was justified by the outcome, the fact that Lane didn’t signal for an advantage suggests that he didn’t feel it was a foul at all, never mind a textbook black card offence.

After 14 minutes, McKenny was making his way in from the left flank again and was visibly stalled in an illegal manner, whereby a free would have been awarded anywhere else on the pitch. And while the ball was worked out to Ciarán Byrne and resulted in a point, levelling matters at 1-2 to 0-5, it was another absolutely blatant call that was either missed or ignored.

Wee county anger subsequently intensified from the restart as Lane deemed a Kerry man to have been fouled – where there was minimal if any contact at all – leading to Clifford restoring the Munster champions’ advantage.

Of the Kerry ace’s seven points, five were from frees and while Louth were a bit eager in the physical exchanges, there were incidents punished at one end which were condoned at the other. This type of inconsistency is what irked the underdogs most.

And while Reds manager Ger Brennan wasn’t overly outspoken when asked about Lane’s showing, he did at least hint that a number of decisions were dubious and went against his side.

"You could hear the Louth supporters weren’t happy with him and you guys watching it might have a view,” he said.

"Conor Lane is an experienced referee but there were probably a couple of things that didn’t fall our way.

"A huge part of our own game didn’t quite go well and a couple of decisions didn’t fall for us.”

EFFICIENCY

The Kingdom’s efficiency was extremely impressive and having been in front by 0-13 to 1-5 at the break, they pressed for home with two goals during the second period, which put serious strain on Louth’s grasp of second spot in the group.

Indeed, considering Tadhg Morley rattled in a major with eight minutes to go, giving Jack O’Connor’s men a 2-19 to 1-10 cushion, with Monaghan seven clear of Meath, it looked as though the 20-point swing required to see the Farney men leapfrog Louth was going to materialise.

Alas, Meath’s relative revival at Kingspan Breffni and the Reds’ steady finish at least preserved runner-up status, which was in jeopardy from the moment Lane allowed Diarmuid O’Connor’s major to stand on 47 minutes, widening the gap to double digits.

Paudie Clifford took upwards of eight steps in freeing himself from a glut of challengers and his lay-off eventually worked its way to the Kerry midfielder who blazed the ball high to the net.

In the same instance, Niall McDonnell and Dermot Campbell were pleading with the umpires over the goal standing while Sam Mulroy rightly inquired about the major’s legitimacy with Lane, who carried on as though the Louth captain wasn’t there.

Within seconds, there was a full scale melee and every official on duty, aside from the two umpires at the Abbeyleix side of the ground, had a contribution to make, with five yellow cards brandished. Ironically, three of them were shown to Louth players.

Did the better team win? Yes. Was the closing margin accurate? It’s debatable. Does the referee’s performance stand up to scrutiny? Certainly not.

LOUTH: Niall McDonnell; Dan Corcoran, Dermot Campbell, Donal McKenny 1-0; Bevan Duffy 0-1, Conall McKeever, Anthony Williams; Tommy Durnin, Ciarán Byrne 0-1; Paul Mathews 0-1, Ciarán Keenan 0-1, Craig Lennon 0-1; Ryan Burns, Sam Mulroy 0-3 (2f), Conor Grimes 0-2. Subs: Leonard Grey for Lennon (50), Conor Early for Mathews (52), Tom Jackson for Burns (60), Liam Jackson for Byrne (67), Peter McStravick for Duffy (67).

KERRY: Shane Ryan; Tadhg Morley 1-0, Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan 0-1; Brían Ó Beaglaíoch 0-3, Paul Murphy 0-1, Gavin White; Diarmuid O’Connor 1-1, Joe O’Connor 0-2 ; Tony Brosnan 0-1, Paudie Clifford 0-2, Dara Moynihan 0-1; David Clifford 0-7 (5f), Seán O’Shea 0-2 (1f), Paul Geaney. Subs: Killian Spillane for Geaney (56), Cillian Burke for Brosnan (56), Mike Breen for Morley (67), Barry Dan O'Sullivan for O'Connor (67), Dylan Casey for Foley (67).

REFEREE: Conor Lane (Cork).

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