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You are > Home > Gardaí score famous first to win Leinster title
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Gardaí score famous first to win Leinster title
Wexford 1 Wicklow 0
THE LEINSTER final of the Garda Inter-Divisional soccer championship on Wednesday of last week at the Wexford Youths’ ground in Ferrycarrig threw together former team colleagues of yesteryear with the unlikely pairing of Wexford hosting Wicklow.
With the splitting up of Garda divisions into counties the former Wicklow/Wexford division has been split into two separate divisions, and few would have forecast such a turnaround in the first year of the new set-up.
Having outlined the historic turn of events, few would have guessed that these sides were formerly in the same division as many crunching tackles quickly made clear that sentiment was being put on the backburner as both sides fought tooth-and-nail to achieve victory.
With both defences very solid and backed by two excellent ‘keepers, easy chances were to prove about as unlikely as good banks. It must be said that the standard of play was quite good, and it was almost at the end of the opening quarter that the first real chance came the way of the hosts.
A quick break up the left side by John English, Kieran Hayes and Alan O’Shea (brother of Man Utd star John) was floated across the box, where Gerry Heanue beat his marker with a header only to see the ‘keeper pull off a top-class save at the expense of what was to prove to be a fruitless corner.
Seán McNamara and Stephen Allen forced good saves at the other end before a ball broke loose to the home-side’s Barry Brennan about 35 metres out, and his low rasping shot just beat the diving ‘keeper as it nestled in the left corner of the net.
It was tit-for-tat in the remainder of the half as the short whistle was reached without any further change in the scoresheet.
The second-half continued in like manner to the opening period with both sides creating some great chances, but many of these were of the split-second variety, with players getting little chance of sizing up their opportunities.
Once again the ‘keepers were to the fore and the referee was forced to flash a couple of yellow-cards as the tackles at times proved to be well beyond fair.
However, it must be said that both sides gave as good as they got and took the punishment in the right spirit, in most cases.
The closing ten or fifteen minutes saw the home-side concentrating more on preserving their slim lead as fresh legs were thrown into the fray by both sets of managers.
Wexford were at times under severe pressure, and as they once more cleared a threat from a corner, the referee sounded the final blast of his whistle and Wexford were crowned the first winners of the new-style Leinster championship.
Wexford later learnt that by virtue of the championship draw, this victory ensures they go straight into the AllIreland decider against Clare.
The venue and date for it has yet to be decided, but for now Wexford are happy to celebrate their provincial success.
Wexford Gary Lynch, John O’Flynn, Ger Guinan, John English, Darren Lyons, Gerry Heanue, Jason Seward, Barry Brennan, Damien Ring, Kieran Hayes, Alan O’Shea. Reserves: Eugene Brennan, Stephen Burke, Barry Hennessey, James Maher, Ritchie Murray, Séan Twoomey, Shane O’Sullivan.
Joint-Managers: Paddy Casey and Peter Buttle.
Wicklow Calum Power, Barry Turner, John Thompson, Eddie Black, Pádraig Roberts, Paddy McGovern, Stephen Allen, Seán McNamara, Tommy Devereux, Seán Furlong, Neil Doyle
Reserves: Anthony Russell, Seamus Veale, Paddy Phelan, Dave Condron, Pádraig Moran.
Manager: Aidan Whelan.
Referee Kenny Piper (Wexford).
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