Managers questioning refereeing decisions is a tale as old as time and in this season's League of Ireland, officiating standards have been oft discussed.
After Shelbourne's narrow defeat to Derry City at the end of March when defender Paddy Barrett was shown a second yellow card, manager Damien Duff was critical of refereeing standards, stating that they were "not acceptable", in his view.
"Standards are going through the roof. Referees need to come with us," he said.
Prior to his departure as Cork City manager last week, Colin Healy also vented his frustration in the wake of a 5-0 loss to Bohemians when his side also had a player sent off, saying that refereeing decisions were "killing us" this season.
Scrutiny over officiating calls reared its head again last Friday when Bohs were not awarded a penalty for an apparent foul by Daniel Cleary on Jonathan Afolabi whilst trailing 1-0 to Shamrock Rovers late on.
Replays showed that Afolabi had been impeded and in the aftermath RTÉ soccer pundit Alan Cawley was critical of what he has been seeing.
"This isn't good enough. We talk about referees over and over," he said.
"It's a stonewall penalty. And these are the decisions that are costing managers their jobs. They're costing players and teams points."
The issue was discussed on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast and former Shamrock Rovers, UCD and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Paul Corry suggested that a communication deficit was not helping the disconnect between match officials and stakeholders like managers and supporters.
"What doesn't help is that there is no communication after the game," he said.
"We all make mistakes and if Rob Hennessy comes out after and says, ' Fair enough, I actually missed that one', I think people then accept it a little more.
"The fact that the referees seem so isolated away from the game... you know we hear from players, we hear from pundits, we hear from managers but we never hear from the referees and I think that gets under people's skin.
"I'm not sure if you've seen any of the stuff that's been going on with the French league at the moment whereby they've actually mic'ed the referees up and then they've done interviews after the games and it actually gives you an insight into how difficult the job is but also what it is they were thinking at that given time.
"And I think that if Hennessy comes out after that game and goes, 'You know what, it looked like (Cleary) got the ball at the time, I may have missed it and it was a penalty and it was a red card', I think that just makes things a little easier for everyone. It's a very difficult job to do."
On the decision not to award a penalty to Bohs on Friday night, Corry described it as a "shocker".
"Given the position that (the referee) was in, the way that the ball doesn't really deviate off its path," he said.
"If that moves to the side, you can tell that Dan Cleary has won the ball."
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