Stephen O’Donnell annoyed by authoritarian Irish officiating

Following his third red card as Dundalk FC head coach, Stephen O’Donnell hit out at what he believes has been authoritarian SSE Airtricity League officiating this year.

In Friday night’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Sligo Rovers at Casey’s Field, a goal-of-the-season contender was scored by Alfie Lewis on 38 minutes, cancelling out Frank Liivak’s opener for The Bit O’Red, but O’Donnell was sent off for his overzealous celebration.

“It was a bit of argy-bargy between the two benches,” explained O’Donnell. “We get sent off for that now. Obviously, it doesn’t reflect well on me or the club.

“I don’t see it in any other league, to put it like that. It’s not even to the officials now, you can’t have words between the benches. You see that every week on both benches.

“There was points on the line, but ultimately, the end result is it shouldn’t be happening to me, and I need to just brush up on that because it shouldn’t be happening.”

Dundalk fighters excel at Karate World Championships

Cathal Murray impressed by Ardee’s ability to grind out results

Cooley record memorable win over highly rated Dublin champions

Following that Lewis equaliser, referee Damien MacGraith issued a straight red card to O’Donnell after he gleefully ran towards the Sligo dugout and counterpart John Russell.

O’Donnell initially made his way into the main stand at Casey’s Field but was thereafter ushered towards the opposite side of the ground, watching on from the television gantry.

“I suppose the template is down,” he added. “I don’t see it in every other league, but it must be a template here. You just can’t talk on the sideline. I don’t think there’s any sort of knowledge or understanding that it’s quite an emotional game.

“It is hard. I’d understand if you’re castigating officials and that, but I think when two benches are having words, I don’t know.

“Anyway, I understand the rules now and understand it’s up to me now to abide by them, but I do think there’s a monumental amount of cards for sidelines in the League of Ireland, comparable to any football I watch anyway.”

Dundalk took the lead through 19-year-old Ryan O’Kane, who was presented with the September Player of the Month award from The 1903 Supporters Club prior to kick-off.

Aidan Keena and Max Mata both scored for the visitors, however, to put them 3-2 in front; before substitute Keith Ward rescued a point for The Lilywhites in stoppage-time.

“I thought it was good for momentum to get the point. It probably meant a little bit more than a point, if you know what I mean. The two (Sligo) goals sort of came out of nowhere.

“They were poor goals on our behalf, but as they have done all season, they kept going until the end. Our last home game was a last-minute defeat, and today was a last-minute equaliser, so I think it was good for momentum. It was great for Keith to get on the scoresheet. It was a great finish and a good header down by John (Martin).

“(The goals conceded) were poor on our behalf. I’m just going to go in and have a look back at it now, but we kept going. We didn’t deserve to lose the game. I’d say we deserved to win the game, but we’ll take a draw and we’ll move on to next Friday.”