Conor Kearns: "I had probably never played in that hostile of an environment before"

UCD goalkeeper Conor Kearns admits that he feels a bit of naivety on his part played a key role in the manner of his post-match celebrations that sparked the ‘fracas’ against Bohemians in July.

Kearns spoke on the ExtraTime.ie Sportscast this week, where the Republic of Ireland under-21 international spoke about missing the last seven games of action for the Students.  

“I have spent a lot of time justifying why I celebrated the way I did, and it probably comes back to a bit of naivety on my part,” the UCD shot-stopper said.  

“I had probably never played in that hostile of an environment before. Anyone who was at the game would tell you that from minute one they were just straight on my case.

“I was playing the game with an injury and whenever I went down to get treatment, there was no way it was timewasting – it would’ve been pushing it to say it was that, but they were on my case any chance they got.

“But, in terms of having to justify it, there’s a lot of people who have been in the situation I have been in that hasn’t had to deal with the same backlash that I have.

“So, to a degree, you can feel unfortunate, but at the end of the day it was handbags. Nobody was hurt, there was no real malice – there was just pushing and shoving but it was probably a bit unfortunate and naïve on my part.”

The First Division title-winning goalkeeper added; “The reaction is the main catalyst for the length of the ban unfortunately. That’s how I perceive it anyway – not that I justify how I acted.

“Look at the traction that had on social media, something had to be done in that respect while I might disagree with the extent of it.

“I respect that they felt the ban had to be handed out and it’s probably unprecedented that a reaction like that has happened in the UCD Bowl against UCD.



“We know who we are as players and I’ve never seen that happen in a game where there usually isn’t that much of a bite to it.”

“If it was a Dublin Derby you would probably say that was part and parcel of it – people would probably be even buzzing off of that with all that passion and aggression.

“Because it’s UCD, people are like ‘why’ I suppose.  One thing I didn’t consider was the effect of it on the ground staff and they were great in handling it.”

You can listen to the interview in full below.

 

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