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Pete McGrath says referee bought Aidan O'Shea's dive 'hook, line and sinker'

Pete McGrath was in irate form following Fermanagh's five point defeat to Mayo which dumped them ...



Pete McGrath says referee boug...
Football

Pete McGrath says referee bought Aidan O'Shea's dive 'hook, line and sinker'

Pete McGrath was in irate form following Fermanagh's five point defeat to Mayo which dumped them out of the All-Ireland senior football championship. 

And McGrath pointed to a dubious penalty awarded to Aidan O'Shea in the second half, as a significant turning point in the game.

O'Shea appeared to have dived as a cross field ball was delivered to him, which resulted in a penalty and led to a slew of critical comments targeting the Breaffy man on social media.

But the Fermanagh boss appears to be laying the blame on referee Joe McQuillan for failing to detect the dive.

Speaking afterwards to the The Sunday Game, he said:

"That was absolutely and totally a dive. I mean how can a man be pushed like that, go to the ground like that with the very minimal amount of contact."

"I've every respect for Aidan O'Shea, he's a marvellous footballer and I'm not saying that maybe we wouldn't have done the same thing but the referee certainly bought that hook, line and sinker. I'm not saying that we would have won the game if they hadn't been awarded a penalty but certainly in the overall context of the game, the penalty was the defining moment and that was an exceptionally soft penalty."

"I wish them (Mayo) well in the rest of their summer but we in Fermanagh will be sorely disappointed but still exceptionally proud of the players."

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