Cassidy critical of ref's Cup performance

Shelbourne captain David Cassidy felt that the decision to have a penalty shootout at the end were the Sligo Rovers fans were situated was ridiculous. Cassidy, who was speaking in the mixed zone following his side's shootout defeat in the FAI Cup Final at the Aviva on Sunday, also felt that all the odds were stacked against his team.

“The decision to have the penalties down at the Sligo end and not to give us a choice is absolutely ridiculous. Security and television decided that the penalties should be taken down at that end. I don't see anywhere in the rules of football that says that security can decide which end that penalties will be taken at. I cannot explain why they done that.”

Cassidy also felt that Sligo substitute goalkeeper Ciaran Kelly was off his line for the two penalties that he saved “Ciaran Kelly was a few yards off his line for two of the penalties. We've seen that also. Unfortunately there is nothing that we can do. The lads gave 110%. We all worked really hard playing with 10 men for 90 minutes, but I think no matter what we done Sligo would have won the cup.”

Cassidy was also unimpressed that referee Richie Winter was unwilling to communicate with him during the game “Some referees would talk to you but Richie (Winter) wouldn't and I don't understand why. I was talking to him a few times during the game but he told me to get away that if I kept talking he would threaten me with a booking. The referees want respect off players. We try to give them respect but they won't talk to you so there's nothing we can do.”

However Cassidy was full of praise for the efforts of his team mates and the Shelbourne supporters on the day, and also revealed what else kept his side going, despite the fact that Shels played with ten men for three quarters of the game “That's not taking away from the players and from the fans who came out to support us today. The players and the supporters were immense. The determination and the will to win games, coupled with the fact that it was cup final kept us going. Take the Aviva and the big crowd out of it, it's like any other game. Once you go over them lines it is like any other game and you want to win. It's just unfortunate that we conceded early in the second half, but everybody worked so hard for the team right until the end” concluded Cassidy.