Former Drogheda United and Monaghan United manager Mick Cooke has expressed his surprise at the public difference of opinion between Dundalk boss Stephen Kenny and his Cork City counterpart John Caulfield.
In comments to the Dundalk FC website, Kenny had made a point of highlighting the fact that current SSE Airtricity League leaders Cork City had had 13 penalties awarded to them in comparison to Dundalk who had not been awarded a spot kick over the previous year.
While Kenny had described that a disparity of "thirteen penalties is outrageous", he had also said that "in terms of the manufacturing of penalties the referees have to see through that" within the League of Ireland.
That led to a forceful response from Caulfield who described Kenny's remarks as an "astonishing attack on referees and assistant referees".
Kenny then responded to that in remarks to DundalkSport.ie, saying, "I think his personal attack on me is quite low".
Mick Cooke feels both managers would be better off keeping their counsel on the matter rather than commenting publicly.
"I'm actually amazed at Stephen getting involved in a war of words," he told Newstalk.com.
"Even for John to respond...It's silly. Both of them are doing very good jobs for their respective clubs.
"You do go through periods where you don't get penalties and where you do get them. Obviously Stephen feels aggrieved that his team have no penalties for months.
"They don't need them and really, to get into a war of words, in Stephen's position, is just being foolhardy."
On Tuesday night, former Shelbourne midfielder Stuart Byrne told Newstalk that Kenny was playing a "dangerous game" by getting involved in an argument over penalties.
Mick echoed that point and added that there is often little to gain for managers when engaging in debates over decisions.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
