Leitrim will decide tonight whether to lodge an objection against their defeat by Offaly at the weekend. They lost to the Division Two A leaders by three points, 1-9 to 1-12, at Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday in a match they claim was ended by the referee, Eugene Murtagh of Longford, before the regulation 35 minutes had elapsed in the second half.

"We reckon he blew about two minutes early," said Leitrim county secretary Seamus Gallagher.

"We believe he could have made a mistake and played half an hour in the second half (National League matches are now 35 minutes a half) and added a couple of minutes injury-time in which case we should have had five more minutes," he said.

Offaly's win preserved their 100 per cent record and ended Leitrim's hopes of being promoted. "I'm not saying that we would have scored a goal," said Gallagher, "but we were entitled to the time to try and get it".

Offaly are no strangers to such controversy as they secured an All-Ireland hurling semi-final refixture against Clare two years ago on the grounds that referee Jimmy Cooney blew his whistle two minutes early. In that case Cooney admitted his mistake.

Were Murtagh's report to make no reference to the matter, it would probably go no further. He declined to comment last night beyond stating that the match report had been sent in.

According to Sean O Laoire, secretary of the GAA's Games Administration Committee: "We would always accept a referee's version if he confirmed that the time played had been adequate".

Meanwhile, Kilkenny goalkeeper James McGarry who was stretchered to hospital on Sunday after a foul by Tipperary's John Carroll has suffered no further ill-effects than concussion. "James was able to join the team in the hotel on Sunday night," said county secretary Pat Dunphy, "and he was able to go to work for a while today (Monday). It looked worse at the match because he had his neck in a brace and was wearing an oxygen mask but these were precautionary".

He is likely to miss the matches against Derry and Wexford.