Heary frustrated at poor decisions

Bohemians defender Owen Heary was left frustrated after an ill-tempered affair against Derry City ended with Keith Buckley as well as Bohs boss Pat Fenlon seeing red in a demoralising 2-0 loss to the Candystrikes. In a game that was firmly in Bohs’ control for most of the first half, a disputed red card for Buckley sparked off a miserable five minutes either side of the break for the Gypsies, as Derry scored twice to win the tie.

Buckley’s red card was a surprise to many in the stadium. Initially the referee, Padraig Sutton, called a foul on Buckley under a decision from the linesman beside the incident. But before Sutton got to stop the play, Buckley made a dangerous lunge on Daniel Lafferty which made the ref reach for the red card.

“The first one was a good tackle, and the linesman flagged for that. The second one was maybe a booking – but you had the Derry players running over to the linesman asking to get the player sent off,” said Heary when speaking to ExtraTime.ie.

“I don’t mind players talking to the linesman trying to get other players booked, that happens. But if you are doing that then stay there, don’t walk away pretending that isn’t what you were doing – and that’s what some of the Derry players did. I don’t think it was a sending off, maybe a yellow card, but the first incident was given as a free kick and it wasn’t a free kick.”

Indeed, just after Buckley saw red, Derry won a very soft free kick inside the Bohs half, from which Daniel Lafferty nodded in just before the break. The soft free was given against Heary, and the defender was none too impressed by the decision making all night.

“I think in the first 40 minutes they didn’t get a shot at goal. Then they scored from a free kick which I still debate was not a free kick. It annoys me in such an important game,” said Heary.

“It was bad defending then for the second goal,” said Heary, of Derry’s winner which came almost immediately after the second half started. “We let them in and we were a bit all over the shop and we got caught. James McClean made a nice run inside, we could debate whether or not it was offside, but it was a good finish.”

After McClean scored what Heary admitted was a good goal, the Derry midfielder ran to the Bohs support and taunted them as they became even more antagonised than just before the break, something Heary could not understand.

“I don’t understand what that is all about, their players coming over and giving our fans a load of stick and that. Maybe it’s the fact that we beat them in the Cup Final and that was the last time we played them – maybe they’re a bit annoyed over that.”

Bohs boss Pat Fenlon was sent to the stands as the players trudged off at the break, but Heary said the half time talk was quite positive, as Bohs had genuinely been the better side up until then.

“It wasn’t a good night by our standards. He (Pat Fenlon) was happy enough with our performance, our work rate. We were dominating the game until they scored from a free kick that I don’t think was a free kick. We had a couple of chances in the first half and then in the second half we knew they would have a lot of the ball because of the extra man. We have young players who are perhaps not experienced enough to deal with that situation. Even then we get a peno and if we score it it’s a different game as it gives us five or ten minutes to go get an equaliser. But it wasn’t to be.”