Football

Donegal ‘not complaining’ over gouge claim - Gallagher

Dublin&rsquo;s James McCarthy tangles with Donegal&rsquo;s Martin McElhinney during Saturday night&rsquo;s NFL Division One clash at Croke Park<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;">			<br /></span>Picture by Philip Walsh&nbsp;
Dublin’s James McCarthy tangles with Donegal’s Martin McElhinney during Saturday night’s NFL Division One clash at Croke Park
Picture by Philip Walsh 
Dublin’s James McCarthy tangles with Donegal’s Martin McElhinney during Saturday night’s NFL Division One clash at Croke Park
Picture by Philip Walsh 

DONEGAL manager Rory Gallagher insisted none of his players were "complaining about anything” despite concerns over a potential eye gouge on Martin McElhinney.

James McCarthy was the Dublin player whose left hand made contact with McElhinney’s eye area as they grappled in the 51st minute, shortly before McCarthy received his second booking.

The episode was sparked by a sliding challenge from Donegal captain Michael Murphy on Ciaran Kilkenny which also drew a second yellow card and a dismissal for the powerful forward.

McCarthy and McElhinney are former Sigerson Cup team-mates from their time at DCU, and McCarthy could yet be in hot water if his actions are construed as a gouge. His fellow Dub Philly McMahon made contact with Kieran Donaghy’s eye in last year’s All-Ireland final and was retrospectively banned.

It was McMahon whose 66th minute goal on Saturday sealed victory for Dublin and preserved their perfect record. However, asked about a potential gouge, Gallagher shook his head.

“Didn’t see anything,” said Gallagher.

“Look, none of our players are complaining about anything, definitely not.”

Dubs boss Jim Gavin kicked to touch on the incident, stating that he’d have to review it. Gallagher had more to say about Murphy’s red card, claiming his captain consistently gets rough justice from refs.

“Michael pulled on the ball for his second yellow card but there was another pull of a ball from a Dublin player a few minutes later and he didn’t get booked,” said Gallagher.

“As far as I could see, with the first booking, the Dublin player mis-soloed the ball and Michael just stood his ground. There’s no point in hiding behind it, Michael gets refereed, in our opinion, slightly different. We look at maybe an incident early in the Kerry game, where the player got nothing, no card... ah, just disappointed.”

Murphy himself was magnanimous about his two yellows: “Ah, come here, it’s two fouls, two yellow cards, it’s a red,” said Murphy.

“I have to deal with it and get on with it, you know. That’s all I have to say on it really.”

Gallagher’s ears were surely burning on the sideline as Dubs fans in the 20,340 crowd booed his side. The 2012 All-Ireland winners defended in numbers and it worked for 45 minutes when they led by a point, 0-7 to 0-6.

But the dismissals created space for three-in-a-row NFL title-holders Dublin to exploit and they outscored Donegal by 1-5 to 0-1 in the closing half-hour: “I wouldn’t say it was a pretty game to watch at all,” said Gavin.

“That’s not the way we play the game. But there is no right or wrong way to play Gaelic football. Teams decide on it themselves. We’ve a particular way to play football in Dublin, it’s expressive, it’s creative. For me and the coaching staff, the creative bit takes the most time to teach and practice.”

Gallagher, who welcomed back Colm McFadden to action after injury, defended Donegal’s defensive approach despite the boos: “I don’t think we’ve gone out overly defensive at all this year,” he said.

“We were quite attacking in a lot of games but we have to try different things to learn about players and see how they fit into it. We’d Mark Anthony McGinley and Ciaran Gillespie making their debuts and we wanted to see how they’d fit into the style of play.

“We were missing Neil McGee as well and Eamonn McGee had a wee knock coming into the game so there were a couple of things like that which influenced it.”