Healy says Fitzpatrick red card in defeat was 'harsh'

Matthew Fitzpatrick was dismissed for a high foot on Milan Mbeng

Linfield manager David Healy said he believes the sending off of forward Matthew Fitzpatrick after 18 minutes of his side's 3-1 defeat by Shelbourne in the first leg of their Conference League Play-off tie at Tolka Park was "harsh".

Fitzpatrick received a red card for a high challenge which caught the midriff of Milan Mbeng.

Harry Wood's first-half penalty gave the hosts the lead just before the break, with Mipo Odubeko doubling their advantage less than a minute into the second half.

Odubeko had missed a penalty of his own in the first half, when the game was goalless.

Kieran Offord pulled one back for the visitors in the second half and missed a chance to level from the spot, before substitute Evan Caffrey then secured the victory for Shels with a close-range finish 13 minutes from time.

In an interview with RTE Sport after the game, Healy described the decision to show Fitzpatrick a red card as "huge".

"There is certainly no intent," he said. "I know the wording and the rulings; Uefa have tried to change it and they're not going to know Matthew Fitzpatrick is an honest type of player.

"He's facing the wrong way, and he turns round. It's a strong yellow if anything but it changes the direction of the game, puts us on the back foot but the referee sees fit.

"He didn't even give himself time to think - he was straight out, the best referees give themselves a moment. As soon as he makes the red card, I don't think his friends in VAR will overturn it."

The Irish Premiership side's boss was disappointed in the manner that they conceded soon after the break, before they got back into the game.

"At half-time we discussed staying tight, closing distances and then we concede a really poor goal 35 seconds after half-time," he said.

"When we got the goal, Shels went on the back foot a little bit. I think the way the decisions were going, that when Kieran did score, I was half expecting somebody to find something wrong with it.

"Then we had the penalty, I think potentially until Chris Shields went to let the referee know that Paddy Barrett had deliberately handled the ball two or three yards out that the referee wasn't going to take any action.

"He got a yellow card but was it the deliberate stopping of a goalscoring opportunity? I thought so. We didn't capitalise on that and that is the disappointing thing. We should have done. If you get it back to 2-2, the complexion of the game and tie changes."

Healy added that his team will be composed in pursuing the goals that they need in the second leg.

"We will not be gung-ho, we will be measured. Do I think we can score two goals at Windsor? Absolutely, we scored one and potentially should have had more against Shels last time.

"In our last two home European games, albeit probably against lesser opposition than Shelbourne in Zalgiris and Vikingur, we've won 2-0 so we'll settle for that again."

Shelbourne head coach Joey O'Brien told RTE that he would have been happy with a two-goal lead going into the second leg before the match started bit cautioned that his side still had work to do in the second leg at Windsor Park next Thursday.

"When you feel safe, you're unsafe. In European football it can swing, it's tight margins, so it's all to play for next week."