Discipline: The career of a well-known intercounty football referee could be in jeopardy after he was sent off for allegedly verbally abusing a referee. Longford official Eugene Murtagh was given a straight red card after an altercation with a referee while playing in a club game on Tuesday night.

Murtagh's son, Eugene jnr, was also dismissed during the heated junior football championship encounter between their club, Seán Connolly's, and Mostrim.

Tempers also boiled after the match, which ended in a draw, when some people visited the dressing-room of referee Mick Doherty, of Legan Sarsfields.

Eugene Murtagh snr is a respected intercounty referee, and was a linesman in the recent Cork-Fermanagh All-Ireland qualifier. He also refereed a number of games in this year's National Football League.

His refereeing career may be threatened if, as expected, referee Doherty reports him for verbal abuse. The fact that Murtagh snr got a straight red card indicates this is the course of action Doherty will take.

The bizarre sequence of events started when Murtagh jnr was sent off following an incident involving a bystander at the game. The spectator appeared to interfere with the ball along the sideline, and this sparked the incident which led to Murtagh jnr's straight red card.

Shortly afterwards, Murtagh snr was sent off after making his views of the incident known to Doherty.

Doherty has himself officiated at intercounty level, as an umpire for Longford referee John Bannon.

Longford County Board chairman Martin Skelly declined to make any further comment on the incident yesterday, other than to state: "It will be dealt with by the GAC of Longford County Board."

Murtagh declined to make a statement yesterday.