Carlow Under 21 and senior football manager Luke Dempsey has hit out referees over the lack of protection players receive from them once they field a high ball.

His comments came after Carlow were dumped out of the Leinster U21FC by Dublin on Wednesday in controversial circumstances, which saw match referee Joe Curley having to leave Dr Cullen Park with a garda escort.

"When a player goes up and makes a fantastic catch in a crowded area, unless he clearly falls to the ground by a complete accident, he should be given a free immediately," Dempsey told the Irish Independent.

"But referees cop-out by letting play continue and then making the easier call. Once a player is grounded they should be making the call immediately, not waiting to see what develops."

Dempsey's team were behind by a point late on in extra-time when their star player Brendan Murphy fetched the ball 25 metres from the Dublin goal, where he was soon surrounded by opposing defenders after falling to the ground and Curley awarded a free out for over-carrying possession.

"As Brendan himself said why on earth would a referee think that he'd just fall to the ground himself when he was in such a good scoring position?" added the Carlow boss.

"I asked him how he gave a free out when our player was blatantly dragged down but he said Brendan wasn't fouled.

"I'm still feeling very angry. The last thing you want to see is continuous garda escorts for referees, but referees have to take responsibility themselves for terrible mistakes like that."

Meanwhile, Dempsey has named his starting team for Sunday's trip to Ennis, where the Barrowsiders take on Division Four leaders Clare in round six of the National Football League.

Carlow (NFL v Clare): J Clarke; K Nolan, S Redmond, T Bolger; P Cashin, J Hayden, A Curran; J Murphy, B Murphy; J Doyle, S Gannon, W Minchin; JJ Smith, M Carpenter, J Kavanagh. Tweet

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