Cliftonville boss offers interesting take on Roy Carroll hand-shake refusals

The actions of the former Manchester United and Rangers goalkeeper definitely sparked a reaction.

Roy Carroll took a personal stance on Saturday, ahead of Linfield's game with Cliftonville, when he refused to partake in the pre-match hand-shakes. While the rest of the Linfield players extended their hands to the Cliftonville squad, the Northern Ireland international bypassed his own team captain and strode on by. His refusal to shake hands created an uproar, most of it online, and drew some interesting comments from Cliftonville boss Barry Gray. It was suggested, in some quarters, that Carroll's decision could have been influenced by the Cliftonville players bowing their head as 'God Save The Queen' rang out around Windsor Park before May's Irish Cup Final. Gray offered a different take on matters with the following comments to the BBC's Irish League Show:

"What everyone needs to do is to ask Roy for his explanation. If he was in my team, I would have a massive issue with it." "Only he can tell why he decided to do that. For me, it's a 'fair play' handshake. He's decided not to carry that out."

"I don't run Linfield," Gray added. "I don't manage them. I'm not too worried what he does or what he doesn't do. "He wants to be (in) the limelight. There were lot of instances yesterday where he got that." As for the match itself, that ended in a 1-1 draw. Libfield, as yet, have not commented on the matter.