Crystal’s Paul Quilty and Carrick’s John Walsh in action during their abandoned Premier League game last Saturday.

Kicking up: Crystal’s Paul Quilty and Carrick’s John Walsh in action during their abandoned Premier League game last Saturday.

Waterford Crystal 1; Carrick United 0

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The feisty relationship that exists between Waterford Crystal and Carrick United took another strange turn on Saturday evening last at the Glass Complex.

Referee Noel Purcell abandoned the contest at half-time following a rather heated debate with a Waterford Crystal club mentor. The problem arose when the Crystal mentor and the match official could not agree on an area where it was suitable for substitutes to warm up and after a great deal of confusion the contest was brought to a premature end by Purcell.

Prior to the abandonment, two players had received red cards and four more were shown yellow. The Waterford Crystal players came out for the second period but a number of the Carrick players were aware that the game had been called off.

All in all it was a farcical scene and it did nothing to improve the image of the game in Waterford. The local Junior League committee will now wait for the official report from Noel Purcell before making a decision on where the points will go or indeed if the match will be replayed.

Incidents like this have no place in football, and one must ask the question, should more than one official be appointed for games like this? There is a problem with the number of referees that are available but nevertheless something will have to be put in place to try and avoid such unsavoury incidents happening once again in the future.

Lead goal 

Waterford Crystal took the lead after 24 minutes. Paul Quilty played the ball out wide to Joe Watson who in turn crossed from the left and Robbie Butler scored with a neat finish with his right foot from 10 yards.

Carrick United’s Stephen Hahessy had a shot blocked which was knocked out for a corner kick on 33 minutes and then Martin Tynan of Crystal was sent off for kicking the ball away, his second bookable offence.

Less than five minutes later, Daryl Kavanagh of Carrick was sent packing. He had received a yellow card for dissent early in the game and this time he handled the ball. Not a good day at all for Waterford Premier League football.

Waterford Crystal: Derek Hearne, Mitchel Casey, Jimmy Barden, Conor Fell, Paul Wyse, Dean Rochford, Martin Tynan, Keith Sheridan, Paul Quilty, Joe Watson, Robbie Butler.

Carrick United: Adrian Walsh, Alan Redmond, Brian Barry, James Walsh, John Walsh, Alan Ryan, Stephen Hahessy, Richie Lawrence, Daryl Kavanagh, Ian Cleary, Adam McSharry.

Referee: Noel Purcell.