Gary Haveron blasts 'horrendous error' which should have resulted in Glentoran red card
While Declan Devine was furious with a number of decisions in Glentoran’s 2-2 draw against Larne, Inver Reds chief Gary Haveron felt his side were on the wrong end of a “horrendous error” which should have resulted in a red card.
Andy Ryan’s strike in the fourth minute of injury time ultimately rescued a point for the Premiership leaders in a dramatic contest at Inver Park.
Larne were awarded two penalties with Paul O’Neill scoring from the first before Pat Hoban, who was later sent off, netted a brace.
While Glentoran went down to 10 men following Hoban’s dismissal, Haveron believes the visitors should have been even further reduced with the Larne chief feeling Jarlath O’Rourke handled the ball on his own line.
The former Crusaders captain denied Andy Ryan’s effort in the closing stages and Haveron is clear it should have been punished.
"The sending off is a big moment in the game, but how Jarlath O’Rourke got away with clearing the ball off the line with his hand...he scoops it out of the net,” Haveron told the club’s media channel. “At that point it’s a handball, penalty and sending off for handling the ball on the line.
"All of a sudden, you have 10 or 15 minutes left and the momentum has completely swung.
"They got away with that, were wasting time, slowing down the clock, and that’s fine, they were perfectly in a position to do that because they had the lead in the game.
"They were smart about how they killed the clock, but if you keep asking questions and knocking the door, we got a result in the end and Andy showed great composure and calmness.
“At the end we got a big decision but we also didn’t get one during the game.
"The referee has made a horrendous error because it’s clear as day that he has hooked the ball off the line with his hand and it’s a deliberate handball on the line so there’s no double jeopardy like the goalkeeper scenario.
"He would have walked and it would have been a penalty and a potential foothold to get back in the game, but we kept banging on the door and we got the rewards.”
Glentoran also had Ryan Cooney sent off following the final whistle with Devine labelling the officials’ performance as “horrendous”.
"It's an outstanding performance from us and a horrendous performance by the officials,” he told the club’s media channel, “Andy Mills, it looks a penalty initially (for O’Neill’s goal), but he gets the first touch, there's no handball in the second one, and if Pat Hoban's is a sending off when a man is grabbing him and he pushes his hand away, then I don't know the game anymore.
"I'm so angry...the decisions that went against us tonight are diabolical and I'm not surprised, that's the bottom line.
"When referees are telling your first team coach at half-time that he knows more about the game than you, then that sets up the arrogance of it all. It's not acceptable when there's so much at stake and I have to be careful, but it's just not acceptable.”