Rams boss Shane Keegan furious with referee's decision after draw with Bray

COBH Ramblers fell to a late goal for the second consecutive home game, and Rams manager Shane Keegan was left unhappy with referee Paul Norton for missing the foul on Justin Equaibor, just before Bray won that additional time free kick which saw them equalise.

“I don't think there's been once this season, where I’ve blamed officials, but that's a really, really poor decision, and it shouldn't be happening at this level,” says Shane. “It defies all logic, how a referee cannot give that. To be fair, he has watched the clip back and held his hand up, so I can respect that.

 “Should we have had the game out of sight? Is it partly our own fault? Of course, it is. We had seven one-on-ones. I think it's the most chances we've created all season long. We've taken three of them, I think they've had three shots at our goal all night.

We've been punished massively in a performance that I thought was one of our better performances this season.

“All you can do is set out to try and create more goalscoring opportunities than the opposition. We've done that, we've created enough chances to win two games,” he says.

“We should have been a little bit more clinical, [but] we've still done far enough to win the game, but we haven't got three points because of one of the worst decisions, it defies logic.

“Ah, the clip on Justin is, I mean their manager told me that it was a joke [of a] decision!

 “Look to be fair, Willy [Waweru] scored two great goals tonight, and by the time he gets his first, that should be his hat trick. He knows that himself. Even Jack [Doherty] one and one, you'd back him all day long to score it from there as well. It's a major annoyance.

“The last three games have not been as good points tally as we would have liked, but we have to remember we haven't lost any of them either, which tells its own story.

“We've had an outstanding first three-quarters of the season. You have to remember that before a ball was kicked this season, the bookies had us to finish sixth or seventh. We're currently sitting third.” 

QUALITY ALL OVER

 With Waweru taking home the man of the match award on a night where there could have been six or seven for Cobh, Keegan was full of praise for his squad's performance.

He [Cian Browne] is absolutely, ridiculously good. I thought there was performances is all over. Pierce [Phillips] is on a great run as well at the moment. Willy and Jack worked their socks off up top. I think Mikie [Rowe]’s cross for Willy’s goal, off his left foot was outstanding.

“There were really good performances all over the field, so we're annoyed that we didn't score more goals.” 

Tiernan O’Brien and Pierce Phillips both departed with minor injuries, but it’s not something of too much concern for the Rams’ boss.

“Both were more niggly things than anything. Obviously, we've got the Munster Senior Cup Final Monday night, so we'll have to assess the two of them. We'll just see how the boys are when they wake up in the morning and we will certainly make a hell of a lot of changes for Monday night.

“We've got a brilliant, committed group, and some of them deserve a chance to show what they can do now, but it’s a game that we absolutely want to win.