AHEAD of this afternoon's Leinster Championship quarter-final replay, Meath forward Graham Geraghty has hit back at criticisms of his conduct during the drawn match against Dublin two weeks ago. In an interview in today's Sunday Tribune, Geraghty, who was twice caught on camera punching David Henry after the ball had gone, denies setting out to deliberately hurt the Dublin defender and says that whatever contact he made was accidental and in the heat of the moment. He also dismisses the comments of The Sunday Game panellist Kevin McStay, who he labels "bitter" and "a whinger".

It was anticipated that video evidence might be used to ban Geraghty in time for the replay.

That didn't materialise and Geraghty maintains that he was quite sure that it wouldn't.

"I was never too worried about getting banned, " he says. "If you look at the incidents in slow motion, then alright, yeah, they look bad.

But a lot of things happen in matches and they happen at 100 miles-an-hour and there's not much you can do about them. It's different if you're standing toe-to-toe with a fella boxing the head off him like we saw with the hurling. In my case, I didn't think it was going to be a suspension.

"What happened happened . . . I wasn't trying to do anybody or hurt anybody. It happens when you go for the ball and try and punch it away and God knows I've been on the receiving end enough times and never held it against anyone. They were totally accidental and I'd never try and hit any player intentionally anyway. We shook hands after the game and that was it."

McStay had remarked on the night of the game that Geraghty had "always had a nasty streak in him" and it is about The Sunday Game pundit that Geraghty is most scathing. "I wouldn't expect anything more from a bitter Mayoman like him anyway, " he says. "He was always a whinger. Not too many people I know would be listening to him anyway. I wouldn't be paying too much attention to him."