Garbiel Bannigan expressed frustration at a controversial umpiring decision that came back to haunt Monaghan in their one-point defeat to Mayo.

Having lost goalscorer Bobby McCaul to a serious knee injury that caused a lengthy delay in the final quarter, the Monaghan manager’s frustration was compounded when he was informed after the game that McCaul's 42nd minute attempt for a point should not have been waved wide.

“Look, obviously, from where I was, I couldn’t see that,” Bannigan told reporters in Clones.

“I didn’t know that was the case. If it was, it is going to make it even tougher. One point defeat, if that is the case, if there was a point waved wide, it shouldn’t happen with two umpires there. It should not happen.

“If it did, that is even more gutting for all of us because a lot of things went against us there today, including the injuries and a couple of other things that went against us at different times. That will be really hard to take if that is true, that a point was waved wide.”

Bannigan acknowledged that McCaul was a huge loss as the slow-starting Farney men whittled down Mayo’s lead from 11 to one point in a frantic finish.

“It’s an emotional dressing room, mainly because of that. He was brilliant, he was causing havoc. But that’s, unfortunately, real bad luck for him and bad luck for us,” he said.

“And we’d obviously lost Ryan McAnespie in the first half as well and that was on top of losing Stephen O’Hanlon before the game. So we’re not having a whole pile of luck, lads!”

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