Referee caught in the middle

NATIONAL LEAGUE/COLUMN: They may still take as much stick as ever, but the reality is that a huge amount has been done over the past few years to achieve a considerable improvement in the standard of refereeing in the game here, writes Emmet Malone

Somehow, though, even in the midst of a season most notable for the incredible levels of division we have seen amongst clubs and their directors, there is still nothing like an abysmal decision by a match official to create unity where none might reasonably have been expected.

Tolka Park on Friday night is reckoned by those who were there to have been the scene of one such communal meeting of minds. Winners, losers and even the odd off-duty referee in the stands were left with only one question afterwards: just how did Tony O'Dowd stay on the pitch when the rules seemed to require his sending off in the 36th minute of Shamrock Rovers' 2-0 FAI Cup win over Sligo?

At the international awards on Sunday night, Sligo's manager Don O'Riordan was still baffled by the decision and his suspicion that his young, gutsy but ultimately defeated side had been greatly wronged by referee John McDermott appeared to be shared by just about everybody else who saw the incident.

That the home side's goalkeeper had intended to bring Aubrey Dolan down after the Sligo player had pushed the ball past him is not disputed. What McDermott seems to have been in a minority of one about afterwards, though, is the feeling that the midfielder had, by pushing the ball to his opponent's left, gone some way towards passing up the chance of a goal.

The interpretation of the rule relating to goalkeepers bringing down players who may or may not be in an unmissable scoring position came, in this case, to a judgement call on how wide Dolan was going to have to come before attempting to turn the ball into the net.

The match official appears to have decided that had Dolan been allowed to stay on his feet, then the goal was less than a forgone conclusion.

Even allowing for the fact that their win made it easy for them to be magnanimous, it's hard not to draw some conclusions from the fact that few in the Rovers camp seem to have agreed.

McDermott, of course, has no reason whatsoever to assess the impact of his decision, and for him to do so in circumstances like Friday's would be entirely wrong. Around Sligo, though, it is only natural that they have been doing little else over the last few days.

From the point of view of the club's officials and supporters, it is hard to escape the conclusion that, with Robbie Horgan out injured and Leinster League goalkeeper Paul Whelan sitting on the bench and the game still scoreless, McDermott's decision to wave a yellow rather than a red card in O'Dowd's direction had a dramatic effect on the outcome of the contest.

As it was, one of the most experienced goalkeepers in the country faced and saved Jason Moran's poorly-struck penalty kick.

The referee's decision to err on the side of caution is, in many ways, understandable. But, after several years in which the game's lawmakers have claimed to be anxious to make the sport more entertaining by weighting the dice in favour of strikers, it is nevertheless disappointing.

Week in, week out we see - and not only in the league here - endless cases of obstruction by defenders go unpunished as referees shy away from giving indirect free kicks inside the 18-yard area. That, though, is what we have come to expect and so, pending what would be an extremely welcome directive from FIFA, it is impossible to criticise referees for doing no more than falling in with a consistent line.

In cases like Friday's, however, the objective should always be to give the striker the benefit of the doubt. Just as in the case of the offside rule, the fact that the referee and his assistants are required to make a judgement call in the case of an offence like O'Dowd's seems only to increase the potential for dispute, which in turn leads to the sort of bad feeling that is sure to be present for some time at the Showgrounds.

If a match official can stand over such a decision on the basis of his interpretation of the regulations then, quite simply, something needs to be changed.