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'Absolute Disgrace' - Bonner Furious After Donegal's Na Rossa KO'd

'Absolute Disgrace' - Bonner Furious After Donegal's Na Rossa KO'd
PJ Browne
By PJ Browne
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Fermanagh's Lisnaskea defeated Donegal's Na Rossa by a point in the Ulster Junior Football Championship quarter-finals on Saturday.

Following the game, Na Rossa manager Declan Bonner expressed his frustration with the match officials. The game had three Na Rossa players - Denis O’Donnell, Christian Bonner and Sean McMonigle - plus Bonner himself and team physio Mickey McGlynn, shown red cards.

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"It's very difficult," former Donegal manager Bonner told Highland Radio when asked if he could explain what had happened on the pitch.

"We always look at our own end of it and our own discipline end of it. What went on in that first 10 minutes, he was flashing out [cards].

"I think after nine minutes, we had six yellow cards got in a game that there wasn't a dirty blow in, a proper good championship game of football. In all my time involved, I've never seen officiating like there. It's an absolute disgrace."

Na Rossa won the Donegal Junior A Championship last month after a 0-15 to 1-10 victory over Moville. The game against Lisnaskea was the club's first Ulster championship game in 24 years.

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Na Rossa had led late in the match but Lisnaskea won 1-9 to 2-5.

declan bonner donegal gaa na rossa referee

12 June 2022; Donegal manager Declan Bonner before the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 2 match between between Donegal and Armagh at St Tiernach's Park in Clones, Monaghan. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

"I know myself that refereeing is not easy," Bonner continued.

"These guys act as if you can't talk to them. They are on the defensive right away. I questioned one or two decisions at half-time and all of a sudden, you're up in the stand for the second half.

"It was crazy in terms of what was going on in terms of the yellow cards. We said at half-time that we had seven yellow cards to deal with.

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"Every time there was a hand laid on, there was a guy down and it's a yellow card. Overall, the officiating, even from the linesmen and the fourth official, they seemed to have a real attitude coming in there today.

"I've been involved in football a long, long time, and I can take the good with the bad, when you come up against that it's very disappointing, very disheartening.

"The group of players put in a huge shift. We will take responsibility, yeah, we were down to 12 men, and you knew it was going to happen with the amount of yellow cards that were being handed out like confetti in the first 10 minutes."

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See Also: How A Swedish TV Show Made Donegal Soccer Club Talk Of The Country

 

 

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