St. Anne's are weighing up whether to launch an appeal following their elimination from the Wexford Senior Hurling Championship at the quarter-final stage on Saturday.
The Rathangan men who reached the final last year before losing to the Rapparees from Enniscorthy were defeated in a penalty shootout by local rivals St. Martins at Chadwicks Wexford Park in their last eight clash.
In the 39th minute Aidan Rochford scored a contentious goal which was not awarded. Rochford's strike appeared to hit spare hurls that were left to the right of the post, inside the goal of St. Martin's keeper Dylan Byrne. The 'ghost goal' is the focus of St. Anne's frustration.
A replay of the incident has been shared widely on social media. The slowed down video clip shows the sliotár rebounding of the spare hurls and entering open play once again.
Nothing could separate the teams after extra-time and St. Martin's won the penalty shootout 2-1 to seal their place in the semi-final next Sunday against Naomh Eanna of Gorey.
Former Wexford footballer Red Barry who was in goal for St. Anne's tweeted about the incident.
The years have run out and what a way to go out... I'm not talking about the penalties. How was the missed and how was the keeper allowed leave his hurls there? Absolutely gutted pic.twitter.com/ZXfxNzaJdf
— Redmond Barry (@ReddBarry) July 31, 2022
Speaking to the Irish Independent last night, St. Anne's manager David 'Doc' O'Connor said he believed that the evidence was "conclusive", however was unsure as to what action, if any, his club would take.
“We don’t know, it’s a tricky one, the balance between winning and losing the right way,” O'Connor told Colm Keys.
We think the video evidence is conclusive. There is obvious disappointment that a goal has been denied in this way, by something that is essentially not part of the game."
“We were led by Aidan’s reaction. He was immediately wondering why the goal wasn’t given but he did continue to play the whistle. We accept an umpire’s job is a tough one,” added O'Connor.
In his match report Alan Ahearne, Sports Editor with the People Newspapers group in Wexford, described the controversial incident.
"In the 39th minute, with St. Anne’s behind by 0-15 to 1-9 after pulling back an early second-half goal, Aidan Rochford broke through and, in real time and from my vantage point to the rear of the stand, he appeared to strike a low shot off the post at the town end.
"However, his hand signal in the immediate aftermath seemed to suggest that he felt it was a goal, and this prompted a frame-by-frame look at the footage later.
"And that showed, beyond any doubt, that his shot had in fact crossed the line before rebounding out off the goalkeeper’s bag of hurls, placed on the ground and facing outwards, directly beside the post.
"It has added a layer of controversy since to a game that never really developed into the type of top-rate contest that we were hoping for, although the conditions clearly didn’t help in that regard."
Speaking on Tuesday to South East Radio's Morning Mix programme with Alan Corcoran, former All-Ireland winner with Wexford Billy Byrne - who was an analyst on the day - gave his thoughts.
"It’s a pity that we had the controversy because given the conditions it was a brilliant game of hurling," he said.
There were two or three incidents that could have went either way for both teams and these things happen...I thought at first it had hit the post because from where I was up in the stand you couldn’t actually see the hurls, but it (the replay) showed after that it definitely hit the hurls and was a goal. It went over the line, but it was deemed that they it hit the post and they played on."
Referee James Owens match report will be instructive in terms of what action St. Anne's take next. Once his report records St. Martin's winning the game it will be an uphill struggle for the Rathangan men to reverse the final result.
