St Pat's beat Derry 1-0 at Richmond Park on Tuesday evening, staying fifth in the Premier Division table but now just a point behind their defeated opponents.
The winner was scored by Kevin Toner in the 23rd minute when he met a Mikey Drennan corner with an unopposed header at the back post.
The reason why Toner had the freedom of the box annoyed Derry manager Declan Devine. It was not down to a lack of attention from his players. Rather, Devine was irked that referee Sean Grant had ordered Greg Sloggett off the pitch to have some blood cleaned from his face.
Here’s the goal from @kevintoner60 that put us 1-0 up at home to Derry City! pic.twitter.com/WZoXjTFL0A
— St Patrick's Athletic FC (@stpatsfc) May 21, 2019
"When you see the goal back, it's a strange goal," Devine told RTÉ.
"Greg Sloggett is picking up Kevin Toner. There was a bit of blood on his nose from where there was a clash of heads. It's only a bit of blood and the referee, amazingly, tells him to go off at a corner and get it wiped off his face.
"We can't get him back on the pitch. We haven't regrouped and reorganised to get Toner picked up and he's got a free header at the back post. In all my time, I've never seen a referee stop a game at a corner and send somebody off to get a bit of blood [cleaned up].
"We had a free kick 30 seconds before the corner and he didn't ask him to go off then. I feel hard done by with that decision from the ref but we didn't perform in the first half to the level we performed in the second half. Truth be told, we've been wasteful in front of goal."
Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
