It was dire straits for Ireland last night as Stephen Kenny's men succumbed to a 2-1 loss to Greece, with Matt Doherty's frankly unnecessary red card summing up what was a lifeless night for Irish football. However, Doherty rushed to his own defence, slamming the card and the referee's post-match behaviour.
While the result itself was poor, the performance was even worse with nearly every commentator and fan in agreement that Ireland lacked any control from start to finish. Gavin Bazunu made a number of saves to keep Ireland alive in the opening minutes, however, a stray hand from Callum O'Dowda gifted Greece a penalty and their first goal. In Ireland's defence, they responded well when Nathan Collins got on the end of an Evan Ferguson flick to draw Ireland level going in at the break.
Superb from Evan Ferguson and Nathan Collins here! Ireland are back in it 💪 #GREvIRL pic.twitter.com/5FMQVVZAvz
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) June 16, 2023
Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there with Greece exploiting poor Irish defending just four minutes into the second half to get the winning goal. From there on out, they completely controlled the game, and could even have some grievances that they didn't do more damage to Kenny's side.
To top the evening off, with just moments left to play Matt Doherty went needlessly rushing into a scuffle in front of the referee, to earn himself a direct red card.
If your U12 team defended like that, you'd bee keeping them back for extra defensive training after the game. #GREvIRL pic.twitter.com/3XGCRLIN1Y
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) June 16, 2023
Matt Doherty slams referee after needless red card
However, the management and players have certainly been slower to accept the realities of the performance. Stephen Kenny's comments in his post-match interview left plenty of fans unimpressed right before Matt Doherty slammed the referee.
Speaking to Off The Ball after the game, Doherty didn't hold back in his opinion of the referee.
I just walked into him and he went into the ground, the referee obviously lacked a bit of something because there was two seconds left in the game, it wasn't really a red card I don't think, it was probably a yellow. I don't think it was neccessary to send me off.
While Doherty clearly disagreed with the red card, he was even more irritated by his postgame interactions with Harald Lechner, implying he was all about himself.
I just wanted to talk to him, but referee's these days don't even let you speak to them. They're so arrogant and sure about themselves that your not even allowed to approach them and have a normal conversation.
It's all about them isn't it. I guess people always think when you go up to the referee after the game that you're going to abuse them, but I wasn't going to do that. I just wanted to talk to him normally.
While comments like these are unlikely to go down well with UEFA, Matt Doherty will already be facing an automatic suspension, that will rule him out of Ireland's must-win tie with Gibraltar on Monday evening.
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