Meath manager Andy McEntee praised his side for their performance in the 2-14 to 0-19 loss to Tyrone at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday but he struggled to hide his frustration at referee Paddy Neilan.
McEntee felt that Neilan passed on a blatant penalty in the second-half and a free on the stroke of full-time as his side’s run in this year’s championship came to an abrupt end in Navan.
“The reason you’re asking me that question is because you know there were a lot of unsatisfactory incidents out there,” McEntee told Sky Sports after he was asked about what he thought of Neilan’s performance.
“There was a penalty, I’ve just seen it on the cameras, a blatant penalty. The referee was less than 10 yards away. There was a free on the stroke of full-time there, and the referee is five yards away. That’s to mention a couple of pretty obvious [incidents].”
Not sure I’ve ever spoken to an angrier manager than Andy McEntee this evening.
— Donnchadh Boyle (@depboyle) June 9, 2018
McEntee insisted that Meath needed to be able to consistently produce the performance they showed against Derry if they are to realistically improve during his reign as manager.
“That has to be the standard, that has to be the starting point. It can’t be a performance like that, and then a performance like we put in two weeks ago (in the loss to Longford). You’ve got to be able to play like that all the time.
“Only until you play like that and play games like that on a regular basis, you don’t win as many close games as you’d like to win.”
