Longford Town boss Daire Doyle: 'If the officials made a mistake, there's nothing we can do about it - we'll look to next week and put it right'

Andrew Dempsey reports from Stradbrook Road

Longford Town interim manager Daire Doyle insists that he will not make any excuses after his side were unable to break down Cabinteely at Stradbrook on Friday evening.

The first-leg of the first round of the Playoff series ended in a scoreless draw, with both sides having chances to take a lead ahead of next week’s second leg at City Calling Stadium.

However, De Town will have reason to feel aggrieved, with a talking point after the game circling around whether or not the ball crossed the line from Dylan Grimes’ 7^th minute corner.

Images and highlights have proved inconclusive – but Doyle believed that the ball did cross the line, while also accepting that it was a tight decision for the officials to make.

“From where we were at the dugout, I know it was 50/60 yards away, but it looked like it was over the line,” the former Cabinteely midfielder told extratime.ie.

“I mean the keeper is in the line, his whole body is after hitting the net and he’s got a touch on it and then it looks like it hits Rob Manley’s arm. So, I don’t know.

“From there, there was a couple of faces and heads that I knew in the crowd by the corner flag and their words to me was that it was a definite goal and it was over the line.

“Listen, I’m not going to worry about it. I’m not going to delve into it, it wasn’t given and we all sometimes make mistakes and if the officials made a mistake, there’s nothing we can do about it and we’ll look to next week and put it right.

“We went into the game positive, looking to come here and try and win the game,” the former assistant to Neale Fenn added.   

“You see in the opening stages of the game; we were causing them problems and they had to change their shape after a certain amount of time to counter that.

“As regards to how we played, I was always coming here confident and get a result. We’ve come here, we’ve got a result – it’s a nil-all but on the flipside, I’m disappointed it was only a nil-all.

Pleased with his side performance, the 38-year-old noted that he was impressed with how Longford dealt with the threat of Cabo’s front men.

“We know (Rob) Manley and Waters are their threat. They’re very good players and we had to deal with that in our back four. You had Joe Manley who came in and he was very solid at full-back.

“You had Dean Zambra, one of our most experienced players playing at left-back and he’s done really well there for us.

“The two of them were very solid full-backs and they gave us a really good shape in defence and in a back four with lee behind them.

“With a back four like ours, it’s difficult for any strikers to play against them. Paul O’Conor had a really good game as well.”