Quaid confirms that Kildare will appeal this harsh sending off in defeat to Meath

There was a sense of confusion surrounding a late red card for Kildare midfielder Paul Divilly in the defeat to Meath on Sunday. Divilly contested a high ball alongside teammate James Burke and Royals defender Damien Healy, resulting in the Meath man going down clutching his face.

He was left bloody, and after a brief with Divilly and then a check on Healy, referee David Hughes returned to show a straight red card to the Confey man. It means that Kildare are without the influential midfielder for their game against Westmeath next weekend, barring a successful appeal. Divilly was perplexed at the decision; manager Joe Quaid and the rest of the bench were confused, and the fact that it came in the last play only rubbed salt into the wound.

Speaking after the match, Quaid said that they will appeal the decision, and the photographs - expertly captured by photographer Pat Tinsley - above clearly show that there is a case to be argued for the number 8.

“I didn’t see Paul Divilly going in on purpose to give it to him on his helmet,” said Quaid.

“The referee said to me he knew it was a card, it was only when he looked at his eye that he knew it was a red card. You make a decision on the spot, it shouldn’t be a case of how injured the man is. It was either intentional or it wasn’t. It wasn’t intentional. It’s a contact sport, and some of the photographers there [showed us] the frames of it, and there’s three or four bodies around him.”

On the overall performance, the Limerick native remarked that it was probably a game that they left behind them, though Meath would have felt more aggrieved had they not left Newbridge with the win. The poor marksmanship on display from the freetakers in the first half was ultimately Kildare’s undoing, and it wasn’t until 18-year-old James Burke – on his league debut – stepped up to the mark that Kildare got into the game.

“It was there for us; I suppose we were always chasing it in the second half,” remarked Quaid.

“Frees killed us in the first half. Let’s call a spade a spade – did we go through four freetakers I think? It was something that I suppose we knew we had a problem with. We were hoping it would come right, and to be fair in the second half James Burke, for a man who is 18 years of age, I just thought he gave a phenomenal performance both from when he went on the frees and from play. Hindsight, if we had him on them from the start….”