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24th Jun 2017

WATCH: Bizarre disallowed goal enrages Down supporters at second half referee

Yes, there was a different referee for the first and second half

Niall McIntyre

Down produced the shock result of the 2017 Championship so far by clinching a narrow two-point win over Monaghan in Saturday’s Ulster semi-final clash.

Eamon Burns’ side will now face Tyrone in the Ulster final on 16 July, their first time to reach that stage since 2012.

The Mourne men were 4-1 outsiders with the bookies prior to this game but they made an absolute mockery of these odds with an energetic, hungry display to oust the Monaghan men.

Kevin McKernan, who was named man-of-the-match, was in flying form for Eamon Burns’ men.

referee

Down were slicker than Monaghan, their fine-tuned kicking game was particularly impressive and their swagger wasn’t matched by the Farney men.

Despite their victory, Down were extremely critical of the refereeing performance in the game.

Strangely, the Down faithful didn’t have only one referee to criticise.

That was because the initial referee, David Coldrick, injured himself in the first half and had to be bizarrely replaced by Paddy Neilan at half-time.

It was the second half referee, Roscommon’s Paddy Neilan, who drew the most ire from the Down crowd.

In fairness, many of the frees Neilan did give to Malachy O’Rourke’s side were dubious, to say the least.

They were particularly unhappy with their disallowed goal, despite Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggin picking up the ball outside the square.

This wasn’t the only decision to anger the Down faithful with a series of soft frees being awarded to Monaghan players.

Monaghan trailed by seven points when Darragh O’Hanlon converted a 41st-minute penalty.

They fought hard to narrow the margin to the minimum in the 70th minute, but Down clung on to win.

Neilan won’t be getting any Christmas cards from the Down support, that’s for sure.

https://twitter.com/brendaofslaught/status/878697690560901120

He may have been lucky they won.

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