FAI Junior Cup penalty shoot-out drama as Mayo side controversially bow out

There has been an inquest into the FAI Junior Cup penalty shoot-out between Ballyheane and Ballinasloe as the Mayo side were controversially knocked out.

Ballyheane FC were knocked out of the FAI Junior Cup by Ballinasloe Town on penalties at the weekend under controversial circumstances. The penalty shootout was level at 6-6 before Ballyheane scored to make it 7-6. Ballinasloe put their seventh penalty wide to conclude sudden death. However, the match official changed his mind, deeming that the Ballyheane goalkeeper didn't have his foot on the line. Upon resumption, Ballinasloe won the shootout 8-7 which caused outrage amongst those associated with Ballyheane.

Ballyheane FC penalty call in FAI Cup shootout.

Regardless of the goalkeeper's foot being on the line, the referee had no basis to call the penalty back to be retaken. The rule states:

"If the ball misses the goal or rebounds from the crossbar or goalpost(s), the kick is only retaken if the goalkeeper's offence clearly impacted on the kicker."

It's been reported that Balleheane will submit an appeal to the FAI in the hope to overturn the decision. The Ballyheane management is not satisfied with how the rules were enforced. "We're going to appeal this to the FAI. We are looking into all the rules to formulate our appeal correctly. This is no way for a tie to end. We're really annoyed about it." "We had the game won officially - going by Law Fourteen of the Laws of The Game. The referee calling back the penalty saying Luca (Meldrum) had moved off his line was wrong. We have a video taken at the match showing he didn't," assistant boss Joe Redmond told Mayo News. "We don't mind losing the match in the normal way, but we had this game won." https://twitter.com/markphiggins/status/1492914823725830151 The Ballyheane players were in shock at how the game concluded. "We just can't believe that last decision. It was really hard to take. We were just saying in the dressing room, we've never been more proud of the team." Ballyheane captain Sean Kilcoyne highlighted, "Ballinasloe are a decent team but we feel we should have got out of there with a win in ordinary or extra time."

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