Moments of madness prove costly

Date Published: 01-Sep-2009

A BATTLING performance from Galway United went unrewarded in Terryland Park on Friday night as Ian Foster’s side slumped to a third defeat on the trot in the league, one moment of indiscipline proving costly for the home side to deny them the point their efforts deserved.

Both sides finished the game with 10 men, yet there was hardly a dirty tackle in the contest. There was one stupid one, just in front of the United box with 16 minutes remaining, Alan Murphy taking out Stephen Bradley with a clumsy lunge, and Bradley dusted himself down to curl the free-kick over the United wall and past Barry Ryan for his first league goal of the season.

It was a cruel blow to United, who had been reduced to 10 men in the 39th minute when Shane Guthrie was shown a straight red card for an off-the-ball clash with Dessie Baker. The pair had been involved in a crunching tackle minutes earlier, the big defender cleanly winning the ball and flattening Baker just inside the United half.

Baker needed treatment, and when players from both sides lined up along the United 18 yard line six minutes from the break, awaiting a Sean O’Connor free-kick from the right, Baker hit the deck again. Cork referee Anthony Buttimer ran towards Guthrie, hand on his back pocket, and he showed the United defender a straight red card.

Guthrie was incensed, and TV cameras saw him mouthing the word ‘cheat’ over and over as he walked towards the dressing rooms. He later insisted that Baker had stamped on his foot, and he shoved the Rovers man in return.

The cameras of TG4, which was broadcasting the game live, somehow managed to miss the incident, but if Guthrie’s account is correct, he probably deserved red for raising his hands. However, Baker’s exaggerated reactions, which were aimed at getting a fellow professional sent off, were reprehensible and he deserves censure as well.

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