Crofton blasts County Board

FOLLOWING his sides six point defeat to Ballymun Kickhams in the Leinster Senior Club Championship semi final last Sunday, Sarsfields boss John Crofton blasted the Kildare County Board for allowing the Dublin champs in to St Conleth’s Park days before the game, writes Ruth Chambers.

Paul Curran’s charges travelled to Newbridge before the penultimate round encounter in order to familarise themselves with the crowd, while Sarsfields were refused access to the ground in the run up to the big game and Crofton was incensed.

“I think I read last week somewhere, in one of the nationals, that the great Gooch Cooper made reference to how important in club football home advantage is, especially in club football at this time of the year. It’s just absolutely remarkable and such an act of betrayal actually for the officers of the County Board to facilitate the opposition in what is our home venue for the club championship. It’s not in their remit in the first instance. And it’s particularly remarkable having refused us kick around time on this field not once but three or four times,” insisted Crofton.

The former Kildare boss predicted that had he rang the Dublin County Board with a similar request he would rightly have been refused, however, he did not blame Sunday’s defeat on the decision of the county board.

“If the role was reversed and we were playing them in Parnell Park and I had the liathroidi to ring their chairman and seek to familarise ourselves and train in Parnell Park, when he’d finish laughing he’d tell me to f-off. We have a different mindset here amongst our officers. It’s not an excuse for today, we were beaten by a more powerful and better team. You can’t undo what has been done, this championship is over but we know where we stand,” he insisted at full time last Sunday.