“I’m very emotional right now.”
Seamus McEnaney was furious at full time following Monaghan’s defeat to Mayo in their All-Ireland qualifier.
The Connacht side managed to beat the Ulstermen in a fascinating game, but it was the referee Barry Cassidy, who appeared to have incensed the Farney manager.
In injury time, Banty was convinced that his side should have been awarded a penalty which could have seen the game go into extra time, but Cassidy wasn’t interested.
“I’m not going to sugar-coat things here. We are absolutely very disappointed. We think it was a stonewall penalty there at the end. There’s no grey area,” Banty told the Irish Examiner.
“I didn’t see it myself but from what I’ve been told the Mayo penalty was touch and go. I’m 20 years managing teams and 15 years managing Monaghan, off and on, and never in my lifetime did I complain about a referee, but today was disgraceful.
“These were huge margins. We can manage, we can build a backroom team, we can get the best players in Monaghan to play football but we cannot legislate for that type of stuff.
“At the final whistle I protected the referee as best I could. I stood three or four feet away from him and helped get him down the alleyway. I did tell him how I felt.
“I told him we were robbed of a stonewall penalty. I wasn’t aggressive or anything like that, but I’m very emotional right now and the Monaghan supporters are very emotional. We travelled here in our thousands.
“Now, let’s not forget Mayo were very good as well. Their half-back line gave us a lot of trouble. We went long with some of our kick outs and they contested them and created opportunities.
“The game was very, very tight and it came down to a few small margins, but it was decided by some big margins. Was it a Mayo penalty, should we have got two penalties? I won’t know ‘til I’m at home tonight, but that’s how I feel this minute.”
