Scully - "We deserved a replay"

Limerick FC manager Pat Scully felt that his side did not get what they deserved after a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Shamrock Rovers in the second round of the FAI cup on Friday night.

“I am disappointed with the result and that we are out of the cup. I think that we deserved to be in the next round or at least deserved a replay. Sometimes in football you don't get what you deserve. I thought the performance was fantastic and that we played really well. I am proud of the players. To go down to ten men and to come back at Rovers and nearly get something at the end was heartbreaking for them. We have some good young players coming through the club and I think that they showed that tonight.”

Scully was also aggrieved that his side were denied not one but two second half penalties in Tallaght. “We should have had two blatant penalties. The handball and the push at the end were two stonewall penalties. The referee came into our dressing room and pulled one of our players back because he had an inch of white sock showing from his boot and then he goes out onto the pitch and gets those two big decisions wrong. It is difficult to take. Anthony (Buttimer) didn't do it on purpose but they were two huge mistakes and they cost us the game.”

Substitute Padraic Quinn received a straight red from Buttimer in the 76th minute shortly after coming on as a substitute. The Limerick manager felt it was harsh call “I didn't get a good view of it but the referee said to the player (Padraic Quinn) that he didn't make any contact with the Rovers player (Kerrea Gilbert) but that he gave him the card because he thought it was intentional from three yards away. I thought that was very harsh. Some of the decisions were crazy and I thought Daryl Kavanagh's booking for Shamrock Rovers was also very harsh.”

Scully was keen to emphasize how much he though of his team's effort at the home of the league champions. “Everybody impressed me. I thought the fullbacks were very good. I thought that Barry Ryan used all his experience and that the centre halves were excellent. Rory (Gaffney) was fantastic and he looked a real handfull tonight. It's a shame that we were missing so many players. We didn't have the players available on the bench 10 minutes into the second half to change it. We could have passed the ball a little better in the midfield area but it is a difficult arena to play in and I am not going to take away from the work rate and the performance of the players. They were outstanding.”