Bealin fuming over Dundalk's late withdrawal

January 05, 2007

Paul Bealin
Wexford manager Paul Bealin has slammed the decision by Dundalk IT to withdraw from the O'Byrne Cup - just three days before they were due to face the Model County in the opening round. The students conceded a walkover after they discovered that they would be unable to field a team, and this has greatly angered Bealin who had already picked his team and had arranged all of the logistics for the game. "It is disgraceful that this can be allowed to happen in such a prestigious competition as the O'Byrne Cup," he blasted. "We were really looking forward to getting a competitive game under our belt as we haven't been able to play any games because of the ruling banning challenge matches in December. "The National League is beginning at the start of February so it is not ideal. I'm annoyed, especially at the reason Dundalk have pulled out and how later they have left it. "The story I was told is that they couldn't get a team together because the students are not back at college yet. But in this day and age, nearly everybody in Ireland has a mobile phone. "If I agreed to enter a competition, no matter what it was, I'd make sure I was able to get a team together. I could understand if the bus broke down on the way to the game or whatever."

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