The Wexford footballers had a funny old week.
Last weekend they gave a rare poor performance with a 9 point defeat to Derry in Wexford Park. Mid week saw a last gasp goal from Graeme Cullen steal a dramatic victory over Westmeath in the Leinster U-21 football championship in Mullingar.
This victory, a few tweaks to the starting line up and we were all set for the journey north to Drogheda for Rd 4 of the Allianz NFL Div2 game. One win, one draw and one defeat was our lot so far after promotion last year.
However last night came the news that there was to be an inspection this morning at 8 bells to see if the pitch was playable after a few days heavy rain in the north east. Bit of a wait but at 9.30am word came through that the pitch was fine and we were green for go !! The team and the die-hard supporters took to the motorway, cards and flowers (brekkie in bed ??) all sorted for mothers day.
A very windy day greeted us by the Boyne and with the toss of coin over Wexford had the aid of a very stiff breeze from the off.
Louth scored an early point but Wexford, through Shane Roche responded with a bang. Great ball worked down field and Roche finished in style. Better was to come, Louth added another point but Paddy Byrne goaled again and now, Wexford with the wind, were 2-0 to 0-2 in front and only ten minutes gone. Adrian Flynn added a quick point, 2-1 to 0-2, Happy days.
From there to half time though we faded, perhaps a bit complacent after the goals, it happens. Louth took control and fought well against the wind. They added another point and then a goal after 18 minutes. Oops !
Further points came as they got to half time 1-7 to 2-2 in front and they had wind to back them in the second half. Shane Roche had scored Wexford’s 2nd point when through one on one with the goal keeper.
A mountain to climb for Wexford so, 2 points behind after playing with the wind.
We started by bringing the fight to Louth and scored 2 early points to Louth’s one but disaster struck in the 45th minute when Conor Rafferty goaled for the home side. Tom Hughes had saved the initial effort but the rebound was put to the net, 2-8 to 2-4 they led with 25 minutes to go. Its a long lonely road to the sunny south east we were thinking.
Ben Brosnan was replaced by Conor Carty. It looked all over for Wexford, but those of us that follow this team know what these guys have inside, many times it has been shown, against Sligo, Limerick, Fermanagh, Longford and most famously Meath. Today was another of those red letter days, 4 unanswered points in 3 minutes brought us level. Shane Roche missed a free and we thought maybe the momentum would swing away again. But almost immediately from play he put us in front. The game had changed, changed utterly (sorry!!) but a real beauty had been born. It was the 57th minute, Wexford ahead by 1 and now Shane Lennon of Louth got his marching orders after a second yellow card.
Roche, Carty, Banville, great points, beautiful points and we were 4 clear, against the wind, away from home, Hon the Boys!! What a Purple (& Gold ) patch. In less than 20 minutes against the wind we scored 8 unanswered points to go from 4 down to 4 ahead. That’s more like it.
A free was conceded and a point scored for Louth, their only score in those last 25 minutes. Great defence. The captain, who had been running around hassling, harrying all day finished the scoring off with a great point just at time up. 2-13 to 2-9.
A victory that early on had looked likely, then seemed to be gone, was worked at, scrapped for was achieved and very well deserved.
Top of the table, Westmeath, still licking wounds from the mid week U21 defeat are the visitors on Bank Holiday Monday. Sleep in, have a late brunch and head for the Park for 2pm. Don’t miss it, it may be good, it may be not so good, but its always entertaining. !!!
Wexford – T Hughes; J Wadding, G Molloy, M Furlong; B Malone, D Murphy, J Holmes (0-1); D Waters, R Quinlivan; A Flynn (0-1), B Brosnan, P Byrne (1-0); S Roche (1-5, 3f), R Barry. Capt. (0-2), P J Banville (0-2). Subs: C Carty (0-2) for Brosnan, K O’Grady for Holmes, P Kelly for Byrne.
Louth – N Gallagher; G O’Hare, D Finnegan, G Hoey; J O’Brien, D Crilly, A Reid (0-1); P Keenan (0-1), B Donnelly (0-1); A McDonnell, S Lennon (1-2), B White (0-3f); P Smith, D Maguire, K Rogers (0-1). Subs: C McGuinness for Finnegan, C Byrne for Smith, M Brennan for Rogers, C Rafferty (1-0) for Maguire, D Reid for O’Hare.
Referee – C Branagan.
1 | WESTMEATH | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 55 | 50 | 7 |
2 | DERRY | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 70 | 61 | 5 |
3 | GALWAY | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 62 | 61 | 5 |
4 | WEXFORD | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 60 | 64 | 5 |
5 | ARMAGH | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 63 | 68 | 4 |
6 | LAOIS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 68 | 66 | 3 |
7 | LOUTH | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 67 | 66 | 3 |
8 | LONGFORD | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 55 | 64 | 0 |