Paddy McLaughlin questions amount of cards being dished out in Irish League after 'not acceptable' Glenavon call
Glenavon manager Paddy McLaughlin believes too many cards have been dished out at the start of the new Premiership campaign and feels the decision to send off striker Francely Lomboto in their weekend defeat to Coleraine was “not acceptable”.
Throughout the opening 21 matches of the 2025/26 season, eight players have been shown red cards while 107 yellows have been brandished.
Lurgan Blues forward Lomboto was controversially given his marching orders during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Coleraine at Mourneview Park after an incident with Lyndon Kane.
Just 13 minutes later, Matthew Shevlin headed home a late winner for the Bannsiders to continue their fine start to the new season while Glenavon suffered a fourth straight loss.
McLaughlin was left furious with the decision to dismiss summer signing Lomboto and has questioned why so many cards are being handed out – six yellows and one red were shown in Lurgan.
"These decisions, referees can laugh them off and go unpunished, but these decisions are result-defining,” McLaughlin told the club’s media channel. “It's not acceptable that we keep being told to ignore them and just get on with it.
"They have to act on this level of refereeing, it's not good enough.
"Both dugouts were in agreement that every tackle throughout the game seemed to result in a yellow card.
"I've seen people talking about the amount of cards in the opening weeks of the season...there wasn't a bad tackle in the game and we have a red card and so many yellows. That level of refereeing was below what the league requires.
"I'll get into more trouble for saying that than the referee will get for his performance, but somebody has to say it because we're talking about it every week. We're all whispering about it, we aren't allowed to speak about it - it was nowhere near acceptable."
Glenavon netted their first league goal of the campaign when 17-year-old Paul McGovern briefly drew his side level after 71 minutes following Adam Long’s finish on the stroke of half-time.
McLaughlin’s men, alongside Dungannon Swifts, have yet to collect a Premiership point and they will hope to put that right with a weekend trip to Cliftonville.
“It was a great finish,” added McLaughlin. “We missed a couple against Glentoran and against Carrick, so it was good to get a first goal.
"When we had momentum we could have got a second and third, you never know how the game could have finished, we could have scored more.
"It’s good to get the first goal but that’s a small victory. The performance was excellent, the goal was good and the effort the boys put in was fantastic.”