A win for the Meath side but another unfortunate incident involving fans and match officials for the GAA to investigate.
Summerhill travelled to O’Connor Park, on Sunday afternoon, for their Leinster Club Senior Football Championship first round clash with Tullamore. It was a hard-fought match, throughout, but it ended with the referee being shoved to the ground.
Tullamore led 1-5 to 0-4, after 29 minutes, when Declan Hogan scored a goal for the Offaly side but Summerhill responded with two points before the break to cut the deficit to three points.
Tullamore could manage only two points in the second half but were still in front until Kevin Ryan found the net for Summerhill. The Offaly men then thought they had a penalty in the final moments but that call was eventually reversed to a free when the linesman consulted with the referee.
The decision at the end of the Summerhill V Tullamore match where the ref first gives a free, after discussing with Umpires it’s changed to a penalty, then the linesman gets involved & changed back to a free.
The right call imo, as the foul on the ball was outside the 6 yrd box pic.twitter.com/nlReZUo1tL
— Just Rua (@_JustRua) October 22, 2023
Referee pushed down in post-match melee
Tullamore need a goal to give themselves any hope of victory but they were repelled and Summerhill hung on to advance.
Following the game, Tullamore players surrounded the referee while one supporter lost his head and shoved the match official to the ground, before being escorted from the scene.
From the footage below, some of the Tullamore players get involved to usher their own teammates away, as the referee leaves the field of play. The supporter enters the picture and shoves the ref from behind. He jolts forward, collides with a young supporter and slips to the ground.
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Reprehensible carry-on, altogether.
One imagines the footage of this match, and the grim scenes after the final whistle, will be studied closely by GAA authorities, and possibly An Garda Síochana, in the coming days.
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