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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Strong defence is the key
Wexford 3-7 Sligo 1-6
ON A day when the attack struggled it was a strong defensive contribution which laid the foundation for the Wexford footballers to make it back-to-back wins in Division 3 of the National League against disappointing Sligo in Sunday’s mediocre third round encounter at sunny but nippy Wexford Park.
Although Wexford dominated the play they themselves contrived to keep Sligo in with a shout through their own basic shortcomings – poor distribution and score-taking (they had 7 wides by halftime) – and it was only thanks to goals on 54 and 61 minutes respectively from Ben Brosnan and Daithí Waters that the home-side could breathe easily as they stole clear by a decisive 3-6 to 0-6.
Those scores also helped Wexford to make light of the loss of Brosnan to a straight red-card only moments after he goaled, with the visitors being kept at arm’s length, only pegging back a consolation goal in added-time through extremely fortuitous means.
Wexford ‘keeper Anthony Masterson had Alan Costello’s drive covered only to be left stranded after the ball took a wicked deflection off Waters on its way to the town-end net. It inspired Redmond Barry to amuse a joyous dressingroom afterwards when wondering: “Who would have bet that Daithí Waters would score two goals!”.
Some of the reason for the home attack’s rather flat showing was poor use of the ball by players further outfield, with the wings in which the likes of Ciarán Lyng and Ben Brosnan tend to thrive being far too underused on an occasion when Wexford could quite easily have finished far more comfortable had they been a bit more clever in this regard.
While the end-result is all that really matters, trying to iron out the rough edges of their play is an absolute essential if Wexford are to (A) realise their goals in the league and also (B) get to the level required to seriously compete with Dublin come the Leinster championship quarterfinal in June.
But the defence merits rich praise having restricted the opposition to 1-1 from play on Sunday, albeit a feeble Sligo side.
Wexford made a few personnel changes from the victory over Offaly, with Aindreas Doyle coming in for Colm Morris at wing-back as Morris nurses a slight injury; Eric Bradley coming into midfield at the expense of Collie Byrne; while Shane Roche returned from his heroics with Dublin City University to slot into the inside-forward line as Paddy Byrne recovers from a knee injury.
Sligo opted to play with first use of the wind, but while they drew first blood with a pointed free from Mark Brehony on two minutes they soon found themselves on the back-foot as Wexford asserted themselves.
Indeed, they quickly turned the tables as Ciarán Lyng drove a third-minute penalty to the town-end net after Sligo’s Neil Ewing was punished for a foot-block on a shot by Adrian Flynn.
Wexford then created enough opportunities to ease clear, but they only managed to convert two of their next seven chances as they hit five quick wides while Shane Roche pointed twice to ease the frustration somewhat (1-2 to 0-1).
However, with some sloppy Wexford play leaving the door ajar for Sligo the Yeats County appeared to be rushing through it when they pegged back three points to cut the gap to the minimum after 27 minutes, with David Kelly (play and a free) and Brehony (free) obliging.
A fifteen minute Wexford scoring drought was finally ended when Eric Bradley raced through to notch a neat point on 29 minutes.
But Sligo continued to capitalise on Wexford’s inadequacies as the westerners grabbed two of the last three points of the half to remain well in the hunt at half-time (1-4 to 0-6) despite such an off-colour showing by Kevin Walsh’s men – pointed frees from Kelly and Brehony sandwiching a similar score from Shane Roche in injury-time.
Sligo seemed to find a new lease of life on the restart.
But unfortunately for them they hit a number of close range frees inexplicably wide, while wing-back Johnny Davey forced what proved to be a fruitless ‘45 after slipping in from the left to threaten the goal.
Wexford were also guilty of squandering some straightforward scoring opportunities, and a Ben Brosnan pointed free on 40 minutes was not added to until the 53rd-minute, when Ciarán Lyng popped over a free to restore a three-point gap (1-6 to 0-6). Moments later the locals finally created some genuine daylight.
Star defender Joey Wadding switched play with a lengthy delivery out to the left where the ball slipped through a Sligo defender’s fingers and into the grateful grasp of Lyng.
He quickly dispatched to Brosnan as the Bannow man raced in before sending a low drive to the Clonard end rigging. Sadly Brosnan’s joy was short-lived as only two minutes later he was red-carded for an absolutely unnecessary challenge.
A Sligo effort to further destabilise the 14-men was undone by a perfectly timed block from Joey Wadding which prevented Sligo’s roving no.2 Charlie Harrison from goaling.
In fact, it was the net at the other end which was sent billowing when Daithí Waters rose at the far post to punch a delivery from the extreme right by Adrian Flynn to the net with nine minutes of normaltime left (3-6 to 0-6).
Sligo tried gallantly and another effort to peg back a goal was intercepted by Waters only a minute before he suffered the misfortune of inadvertently directing a Sligo shot to his own net seconds into added-time.
But Wexford hardly batted an eyelid, and all that remained was for Shane Roche to complete a crucial victory with a pointed free which was soon followed by the final whistle.
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