Martin Regan refuses to lay Ulster elimination to Cargin at the hands of the match officials

Martin Regan admirably refused to lay the blame for Naomh Conaill’s shock Ulster Club SFC exit at the feet of the match officials in Corrigan Park. 

Antrim champions Cargin saw off the Glenties men on spot kicks after matters had ended all square at the end of both normal and extra-time. 

Still, there was no doubt that the Boys in Blue will privately feel irked by some of Armagh official Kevin Faloon’s calls in west Belfast at the weekend. 

On the actual defeat itself and the nature of their penalty shootout elimination, Regan said: “It’s difficult. We came up here thinking we’d a chance to progress to the semi-final. 

“We lost on penalties but the truth is we left it behind us really. At the end of normal time we were three points up and we should have seen it out.

“Even at the end of extra-time we were four up. But again we let them back into it. We conceded a really bad goal in extra-time. And we even got back in front there right at the end but, again, we conceded a score off the very last play.

“We’d loads of opportunities to win it so we really have no one to blame but ourselves today.” 

The first real noticeable call that went against the Glenties men was Michael McCann’s effort on 13 minutes, which seemed to tail a good metre wide. Regan, on that same touchline side as the press area, agreed it was a poor call. 

“I was in line with that one in the first-half and I thought it was wide. The linesman also had a perfect view so he should have intervened. But we aren’t going to blame officials this evening. We threw it away ourselves. 

“Charlie’s (McGuinness) black card at the end of normal time was, I thought, another harsh one. We had to play the first ten minutes of extra-time with 14 players. That was tough. We still went four clear but we’ll have to look at how we let them off the hook on so many occasions.”  

The visitors were certainly dealt a real blow in the lead-in when veteran duo Anthony Thompson and Brendan McDyer picked up knocks in training that ruled them out of the weekend’s clash. 

“Yeah - we probably did miss those lads at certain times there today. Brendan and Anthony were two huge losses. They are real leaders. But that’s football and you will lose players at certain stages.

“This is so disappointing as we’d have loved a crack at (Watty Grahams) Glen or Errigal Ciaran in a fortnight’s time.”