Dundalk's Stephen Kenny has hit back at Cork City counterpart John Caulfield for what he sees as a "personal and low attack" as their war of words rumbles on.
Last week Kenny revealed his amazement that Dundalk had not been awarded a penalty in a year, while Cork had 13 in the same period.
Kenny described that figure as "outrageous" in an interview on their club website.
He said: "To not get a penalty in a full year when another team gets 13, does that mean I tell our players to go down all the time? I encourage my players to be honest.
"As a club we have to rise above all of that. There is a massive disparity in the decision-making process. Is it Turner’s Cross? Why the disparity?
"We want some evenness in that regard and there has to be a fairness attached to everything.
"I think the referees and assistants are in a difficult position but they have to see through the current trend of manufacturing penalties."
Caulfield revealed his anger over the comments at the weekend, telling the Irish Examiner that it was an "astonishing attack on referees and assistant referees and I’m sure the relevant authorities will deal with it.
"That’s the way I read it."
But the matter has not finished there. Today Kenny has called Caulfield’s rebuttal a "personal attack on me is quite low".
He told DundalkSport.ie: "As a fellow manager you should never launch personal attacks like that and that’s disappointing."
The Lilywhites suffered a 3-1 defeat to Bray Wanderers last Friday and fell nine points behind their title rivals.
Bray were awarded two penalties in that game, which Kenny felt were unjust, and said the occurrence was his lowest point ever after a game.
He said he did not want to be part of the League of Ireland with such apparent poor decisions.
"I can’t tell you how disappointed I am about the whole episode on Friday," he said.
"I don’t think I’ve ever felt as low as I did after that experience. It’s very unfair on the players to work hard all year and then have to tolerate that. It was a real low point.
"Neither of them were penalties. It was a real shocker and I can’t tell you how let down everybody feels by it.
"Up until Friday I was happy with our start overall, considering all the things that have happened this year.
"We have had a lot of problems. We are rebuilding somewhat and I accept overall that Cork have been the better team this season so far.
"They have been very consistent and I am not taking anything away from them but what happened on Friday was an exceptional, exceptional low point.
"It’s not something I want to be a part of, a league with that sort of stuff going on. I wouldn’t want to be part of that and nor should anybody else.
"When it comes to things like fixtures and things like that, we can deal with whatever is thrown at us. That’s stuff that is within your control but you have no control or comeback from what happened on Friday night."
