BOHEMIANS MANAGER KEITH Long was left to lament the refereeing decision on which last night’s Dublin derby swung. 

Bohs were beaten 2-1 by Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium last night, with the wining goal a 75th-minute penalty converted by Graham Burke. It was awarded when James Finnerty collided with Daniel Mandroiu in the box, for which referee Paul McLaughlin sent the Bohs player off. 

“I don’t think it’s a penalty and I don’t think it’s a red card”, said Long after the game. 

A little bit”, was his reply when asked if he felt his side had been harshly dealt with. “And not for the first time here, and not for the first time this season with that referee.

“It’s not a penalty. Georgie Kelly has a shot against the foot of the post the referee plays advantage on, and he tells Georgie that it would have been a penalty had he not played advantage. So surely there is no advantage if we don’t take advantage.

“Then there’s double jeopardy [with the penalty decision]. The game is in a very perilous situation now, I have to say, with certain rules and the interpretation of the rules by different officials. Apart from some critical moments I thought the referee had a decent game, but listen, we’ve got done and we have lost another game. We definitely deserved something from tonight.”

Rovers manager Stephen Bradley also gave his view on the incident. 

“I haven’t seen it back but, right then and there I felt it was a penalty. [The red card] is the ref’s decision at the time. We’ve had games here against Bohs when we’ve had players sent off for the ball hitting them in the head, like. If it’s not a sending off I think we’ve earned that.”

Bohs’ defeat means they lie sixth in the table, with seven points from seven games, though Long was cheered by his side’s performance in defeat, which he called their best of the season thus far.

“I think so. I thought particularly second half. After the first 20 minutes, they came out firing and when they test you in terms of the technical players they have, they move the ball around quickly, they test your organisation.

“We conceded a soft goal, but we settled into the game and got a goal ourselves, we looked likely. It was another open game, maybe we need to look at that to a degree. Listen, I’m very proud of the players. I can’t ask any more of them, they were fantastic to a man. I don’t know how Liam Scales gets Man of the Match to be perfectly honest, because Ross Tierney was absolutely outstanding. He covered every blade of grass tonight. They are champions, they have won the game and have many more experienced players than we have, but that’s not an excuse tonight as I can’t ask any more of the players.” 

Rovers, meanwhile, are level on 17 points at the top of the league with Saint Patrick’s Athletic, and Bradley was also encouraged by chunks of last night’s performance. 

“First half was probably the best we’ve played this season. Some of our play was outstanding but we were too open when we were doing that. We were too open in transition. Our balance wasn’t good and we needed to correct that at half time because we were giving too many chances away.

“We did that but then we took away from our attacking stuff. It was a tale of two of halves from our point of view. It was a good game: two good sides.”