OLLIE HORGAN is seldom anything other than forthright when it comes to assessing football.
On Friday night, following a 0-0 draw against Athlone Town at Finn Park in the SSE Airtricity League First Division, the Finn Harps manager chose his words carefully.
Horgan could almost smell the Deep Heat he was so close to the 32nd minute tackle that had a huge outcome on the game. In went Josh Mailey on Derek Doyle; out came referee Paul McLaughlin’s red card.
“I better be careful what I say about officials because I seem to land myself in trouble when I speak the truth,” Horgan said with the deliberateness of a chess player. “I was three yards away from it. So was the fourth official. Josh Mailey had one foot in the ground. The referee saw it differently. Who am I to argue?
“The reason I didn’t argue is because when you speak the truth the referees are better with the pen than they are with the whistle. I’m sorry for speaking so openly about it but, you know, there’s only so much you can take of it. I’m not impressed with the decision. We had a few penalty shouts. I’m not complaining about them – they are given some days and not given other days.”
From being a match that Harps thought they had to win, Mailey’s dismissal meant that in the end there was certain consolation with a point. Athlone had a numerical advantage for two minutes shy of an hour but Harps just upped the workrate and were a match for their guests from the midlands.
“The whole game changed with a sending off,” Horgan continued. “We were down to 10 men for the guts of an hour. Look, they’re (the officials) only human but I just think there’s a small bit of – I don’t know what word to use and I want to be careful here as i will probably land myself into more bother.
“Sometimes people might think they are better than what they are. It’s about the players – it’s about Nathan Boyle there today, it’s about Philly Gorman, it’s about whoever. It’s not about me and it certainly isn’t about the referee.”
Having lost 1-0 at UCD last Sunday, Harps have now picked up just a point from six available and travel to Ferrycarrig Park to face the side that can jump above them into top spot in the table on Friday night next – Wexford Youths.
Horgan, though, wasn’t critical of his side against Athlone.
“There’s great commitment there,” he said of his players. “If it wasn’t we’d be out the door. The only disappointing thing is that – a little like UCD on Sunday when we didn’t throw the kitchen sink at it until we went one down – we didn’t really go at this game until we went down to 10 men.
“It’s just a pity we can’t do it when it’s 11 on 11 and go for it then, like we did at the start of the year. After the red card, it was the counter-attack that Athlone were getting joy from and that was them with 11. They were getting joy from our corner kicks or our long throw-ins.
“A draw probably is no good for it. We went for it; you saw that and of course you’re going to leave gaps then when you are down to 10 men. It could’ve gone either way. Philly Gorman had a great chance with the one Ciaran Gallagher came out and made a great save.
“At the same time we had one that hit the post with Nathan Boyle. It was a very open game and credit to Athlone for that as well.”
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