"How can everybody be wrong bar the referee?" Tim Clancy slams officiating after Cork City defeat

After eight games, Cork City are on seven points. Eight games into the 2023 season they had six.

From the outside looking in, it may seem as though history is repeating itself, but watching the team on the pitch tells a vastly different story. City are heading in the right direction.

Defeat to St Pat’s wasn’t what Tim Clancy and his team would have wanted. The 2-0 scoreline, in many respects, doesn’t reflect that.

“Two moments in a four minute spell that got away from us,” Clancy began after the game. “I thought for large spells in the first half we were probably the better team, and probably large spells of the second half.

“Pat’s had a 2-0 lead, so they can sit off and defend. I felt we were excellent, just got done by a very good Chris Forrester strike. It takes a deflection and goes right into the top corner, in off the crossbar and post.

“That’s sort of the luck we’re getting at the minute.” 

That misfortune was then compounded shortly after by referee Marc Lynch’s decision not to award a penalty when Cathal O’Sullivan went over in the box. A decision that left Clancy furious.

“It's a penalty. It can’t be any other decision,” he said. “Anywhere on the pitch, a player runs into the back of someone, pushes them and falls on them with their arm around them, it’s a foul.

“If you look in the first half, Axel [Sjöberg] is at the corner flag going back towards his own goal, he’s run himself into danger, there’s no contact he falls over and grabs the ball. Marc [Lynch] blows the whistle and gives a free kick.

“How he cannot then judge the one in the box, a big, big moment in the game as not a penalty is beyond me. Everybody I’ve spoken to and everybody that’s seen it thinks it’s a penalty.

“So how can everybody be wrong bar the referee?

IRRELEVANT

“The fourth official is sitting there going: ‘I don’t know, I think it might have been outside the box.’ That’s irrelevant – it’s still a foul.

“Are we getting punished because it was inside the box?” he asks. “If that’s on the halfway line he blows the whistle and gives it.

“Is there a degree of contact that needs to be in the penalty area? Is that a magic white line, the second that you go over it – now it has to be an assault or something?

“Go back three or four weeks against Sligo, there were four incidents in the game – an absolute disgrace. There is a lot of talk about the one we got against Drogheda, cheeky people saying we didn’t deserve it, when it’s clearly hit the kid’s arm as well.

“To compound it I had one last week, a yellow card against Derry [City], the fourth official saying it’s not a handball, the referee gives it from behind him, he can’t see it.

“I say ‘it’s not a hand–‘ book him. Their way to keep you quiet on the sidelines is to give you a yellow card.

It’s a power thing.

“They say they even themselves out – we must be due about 45 penalties in the second half of the season because it’s not good enough,” Clancy argued. “It’s not good enough, it’s a clear push and an arm in the back of Cathal from Chris Forrester.

“Everyone we spoke to – LOI TV – they all thought it was a penalty as well. That’s big moments, and they’re not giving us the moments we deserve. Something needs to be looked into – why Cork City don’t get penalties.” 

While the officiating left a lot to be desired in Clancy’s eyes – one consolation was the outstanding performance of Cathal O’Sullivan, who tried desperately to make things happen at every opportunity.

“You’re looking at the most expensive player ever in the League of Ireland, Mason Melia up top today. Cathal O’Sullivan played up top and as I said there, if Mason Melia is going for €2 million, Cathal O’Sullivan should be going for about 10 if that’s the case.

If you watched the two of them tonight who would you want to sign?

“I think he stood head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch, for his ability holding the ball, his decision making. His ball carrying. He cut inside and had a couple of shots, the trademark that he normally does.

“When you have Cathal who is playing out of position, and still being the best player on the pitch by a distance, you still carry that threat all the time.

“I don’t think we didn’t win the game today was because we were missing some players at the attacking end of the pitch. I just think it’s two moments at the end of the first half that really cost us.”