'Their goalkeeper has apologised to us, saying we should have had a penalty'

Brian Maher has revealed that Sligo Rovers goalkeeper Richard Brush apologised to the Derry City players after last night’s game at the Sligo Showgrounds, insisting they should have been given a penalty.

The game ended in a series of controversial decisions, all of which went against the Candystripes, starting with the refusal to give City a penalty on 72 minutes when Brush collided with Cian Kavanagh in the penalty area.

Less than 10 minutes later, referee Rob Harvey dismissed Ronan Boyce, and that was quickly followed by the controversial winning goal, with substitute Stefan Radosavljevic bundling the ball into the net from close range. City goalkeeper Brian Maher and his defenders surrounded the referee claiming handball, but the goal stood.

“I’ve heard members of their staff and players doing interviews talk about it,” Maher said afterwards. “I’m not sure if he’s meant to handle it in or if it was just his reaction to nearly missing the ball with his leg, but from where I’m looking and from where everybody around the ball was looking, he’s handled the ball into the net with four minutes to go, and we’ve lost the game.

Maher believes the penalty incident was clear cut, and an easy call for anyone to make.

“Their goalkeeper has apologised to us after the game and said he doesn’t understand how it wasn’t given as a penalty,” he explained.

“I think their goalkeeper made a few good saves and was very good in the game but he said straight out that he couldn’t understand how it wasn’t given as a penalty. I heard from boys in the stand as bewildered as ourselves how it’s not been given.

“It’s probably not a difficult decision, it’s one that you can see coming that Cian is getting to the ball first. As a goalkeeper, looking at it, we’ve all been there where you just make the decision to come and you shouldn’t. He’s admitted himself that it’s a penalty and in a game so big, in a title race like this. It’s unacceptable.

“There’s a lot of talk of referees and a lot of it is quite unfair, but tonight we’ve had a stonewall penalty not given.”

Maher though has acknowledged that City didn’t do enough to win the game on the night, at a ground where they have now taken just one point from in their last four visits.

“We’re very disappointed,” he said. “First and foremost, we haven’t reached our own standards that we’ve set in the last probably three months, but we’re not blind to the fact that certain things out of our control have had a big bearing on the game as well.

“Us players as a group and as a staff accept that. We did not get to our standards tonight; we didn’t put them on the back foot, we didn’t create enough but if the penalty is given an you win 1-0, I don’t think anybody cares how many gears you go through, if you win the game down here because it’s a tough place to go. We need to do more, 100%, but overall, it’s just a very, very disappointing night to be honest.”