St Eunan’s manager Rory Kavanagh believes the decision to send off Shane O’Donnell before half-time in today’s Donegal SFC final was “wrong” and ultimately cost his side on the day.

The Letterkenny side fell to a 1-9 to 2-5 defeat at the hands of Naomh Conaill in Ballybofey, relinquishing their title in the process, as Ciaran Thompson’s 58th minute free proved the difference in the end.

Speaking to DonegalLive.ie after the final whistle, Kavanagh felt that there was nothing in the incident which led to O’Donnell’s straight red card from referee Marc Dorrian on the eve of half-time.

“I watched it back and to be honest there was absolutely nothing in it,” he stated. “Shane comes in and he pushes somebody and goes to ground. But we consulted linesman Val Murray afterwards and he said it was for a secondary action where he said that Shane allegedly struck the Glenties player on the ground but there was no strike.

“There was no strike and these are big moments and big decisions in county finals and I told him it was wrong and that he got it wrong and it cost us today. He said there was a strike on the ground but we looked and there was no strike on the ground and that was a huge call and I know we were not playing well but at the same time these are big decisions that went against us.”

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