Sounds like unbelievable finish to the Game in Wexford Parkā¦ anyone know if there was any cameras down there
We were losing by 2-20 t0 0-17 after 28 minutes of the second half and we looked well beaten. In truth, I was worried weād ship another couple of goals and take a really demoralising defeat. But that was a sensational ending and great to see the young players like OāKeeffe, Gary Moore and Guiney step up with the game winning goals. Always great to beat those inbreds and a very satisfying smash and grab today. Obviously thereās loads of work to do and thereās a lot of things to improve on but that should give confidence to everyone involved with the squad. 
Offaly 9 points up with a few mins to go!
Boom. Take that you Biffo fucks
My smart phone has a camera on it.
Oh dearā¦
That scar under his left eye was limericks bestā¦āIron Mikeāā¦off the ball of course
At least heās two All Irelands to show for it.
Was in Tullamore.
We should have won by about 20 points more. Offaly are useless with the exception of the corner forward Ken Casey and NIall McNamee (who came off the bench in the second half but was well shackled by Graeme Molloy, he must be sick of the sight of him at this stage.
Best for Wexford were Ciaran Lyng and PJ Banville. Tierney went well at corner back but it wasnāt much of a test for him in honesty.
More on the hurling for anyone whoās interested.
That win would fall into the āsmash and grabā category but it was encouraging that they kept going and showed the determination to pull it off. There were two occasions where Offaly players tapped over late points to pad their score out to 2-20 when goals were most certainly on and Ćanna Martin made one outstanding save when we were already 6 or 7 points behind too so it could have been well and truly over before the late drama.
And our goals came more from dogged desire than any real pretty patterns of hurling. As underage hurling experts like twiceasnice97 would know, Jack Guiney has a rocket of a shot on him from a free - indeed he scored a couple of 21-yard frees against Offaly in the Leinster Minor Championship last summer - and Diarmuid OāKeefe knocked in the rebound for our first goal after Guineyās bullet free was saved. That brought it back to 2-20 to 1-17 with around 6 or 7 minutes left.
Guiney forced David Kenny over the endline for a '65 shortly after and Harry Kehoeās resultant delivery was bobbling around in the square before Gary Moore forced home a ground stroke for our second goal - this was just after heād knocked over a very good point from out wide.
The winner then came from Guineyās 21-yard free from the inside right position after David Redmond was taken down by the neck when bursting through late on. This was an absolute hammer of a strike by Guiney with Appendage reacting by punching me in the face in the aftermath and, though he said it was an accident, I feel he was waiting for an opportune moment to land the shot. Some biff cunt got a second yellow for the challenge on Redmond by the way.
We had started the game decently enough and PJ Nolan (probably our best forward overall) and TomĆ”s OāLeary scored good early points. But we then conceded a terrible goal when Martin hit Bobby Kenny with a short puck-out but Kenny dwelt on the ball too long, got blocked down and Brendan Murphy ended up getting on the loose ball and soloing through to finish. Joe Bergin was having the better of John Leacy under the high ball and he caught an Offaly puck-out and ran right through the heart of the defence before laying it off for Colin Egan to score their second goal shortly after. Our players seemed to lose confidence for a while after the goal concessions and we looked rather uncertain all over the field.
One notable thing was the lack of communication and there were way too many occasions when two players challenged aerially for the one ball or someone didnāt give a simple call to alert a player that he either had space on some occasions or needed to move the ball quicker to avoid an oncoming opponent on others. You need to talk to each other on the pitch in every fucking sport - they could have been helping each other out a bit more, I felt.
The lack of confidence was then apparent in the decision making and execution of passes (and perhaps our poor first touch - not sure if this can be attributed to nervousness, lack of hurling or whether we just collectively arenāt really up to the required standard yet but itās probably a combination of all of it). There was a bit of panic and relatively straightforward short stick passes and handpasses started going astray allowing them to score a couple of points from cheaply conceded possession.
We then reverted to hitting the ball aimlessly downfield for a period because it seemed we didnāt want to risk losing the ball in deeper positions by working it through hands but this was frustrating because players were ignoring better placed colleagues and not selecting good passes. We also had a run of wides before half time and Harry Kehoe was fairly mixed on the frees overall - scoring 5 but missing 2 that youād have expected him to get and another 2 more difficult long range ones.
It was 2-9 to 0-10 at half time and we made a treble substitution at half time. James Tonks for Bobby Kenny in defence and Jack Guiney and Rory Jacob for TomĆ”s OāLeary and Garrett Sinnott in attack. David Kenny had outplayed Sinnott in the first half. Guiney went to wing forward with Richie Kehoe going into the centre and Eoin Quigley moving in full forward. We also made a few positional changes in defence and we were more secure after that (notwithstanding those chances Offaly had late on) with Rossiter full back, OāHanlon centre back and Leacy on the wing.
We actually starting moving the ball around better again in the second half and scored some decent points but didnāt get it back to anything less than 4, as far as I recall. They had a decent spell then for around 10-15 minutes in the middle of the half and we couldnāt seem to pierce their full back line where Kenny was dominant. Eoin Moore came on for Leacy and Gary Moore came on for Richie Kehoe and we then summoned that late effort to turn it around.
All the subs made positive contributions and it was a boost to win. Still a load of work to do - another high tally conceded and we need to tighten up and work harder all over the field to deny the opposition time to deliver good quality ball into their forwards. We were also a bit naive at times and need to support each other better on the pitch. We obviously need to improve the execution of our skills but the actual decision making and pass selection when in possession wasnāt the best overall either.
Double header at home next week with the hurlers taking on Limerick and the footballers meeting Roscommon.
Scorers: Harry Kehoe 0-7 (0-5F), Diarmuid OāKeeffe 1-1, Gary Moore 1-1, Jack Guiney 1-0F, David Redmond 0-2, Eoin Quigley 0-2, PJ Nolan 0-2, Richie Kehoe 0-1, TomĆ”s OāLeary 0-1, Rory Jacob 0-1.
How did OāHanlon get on at centre back Bandage? Full back is Rossiās best position by a mile as Iāve probably mentioned numerous times before.
He was decent enough, Mac. Just held the centre and was good in the air and a strong presence there. I prefer Rossiter in the full back line too - either full back or in the corner. Itās hard to tell what way the side will ultimately shape up.
A fairly bizarre report on RTE saying Ćanna Martin coughed up possession for the first goal. Thatās if you count passing it straight to your team-mateās hand as coughing it up. It also says Guiney scored the winner from a rebound after his free was initially saved - he actually buried the free into the roof of the net.
Could any of the jimmys lads tell me about OāHanlons capability as a centre back? Would he have hurled much there when younger? Disappointing to hear that Leacy was cleaned out by Bergin as well. Great to see a few new names winning the games for us. Some of these lads will have no fear of any team which has to be encouraging. Guiney has some strike for a young lad, but is still fairly raw and can drift out of games.
RTE have a brutal stringer who makes mistakes all the time. His reports appear on half the websites in Ireland so when he makes a clanger itās all over the place.
The same mistake is here http://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/other/wexford-overcome-nine-point-deficit-to-beat-offaly-543158.html
Centre back is his best position with the club. Heās always hurled at full back for the County as far as I can remember.
His reading of the game is unreal and heās like a magnet for the ball. Did he move out onto Bergin today Bandage?
[quote=ācroppy_boy, post: 637693ā]Did he move out onto Bergin today Bandage?
[/quote]
Yeah, he moved to centre back around 5 or 10 minutes into the second half. Leacy was finding Bergin quite a handful so he went to wing back, Rossiter to full back and OāHanlon out to centre back.
As I said, it was more about heart and desire today and we need to improve a great deal. Wasnāt too impressed with our play for large spells and it was hard to pinpoint our gameplan at times. We seem to struggle to create space and need more movement and to develop a pattern of play. We were shaken by the goal concessions and lost our way and hit a lot of aimless ball. This should be good for confidence but thereās a lot of coaching work to be done still to develop a style of play.
Great win and everything, but worrying the seeming lack of gameplan. But Iām assuming everything is highly experimental at the moment Bandage, in that Dunne is trying to figure out the best positions for all on the panel and what tactics to accordingly adopt?
The king hit from Appendage is equally worrying, I trust you have made a full recovery Bandage.
cheers for the reports lads. good result, just not hearing the best reports on our play or performance. but at least there is some spirit and its always good to beat them cunts. especially when they refused to toss a coin for both games to be in the one venue. O Hanlon was centre back for the counsel the year they got to the AI final, and was very good that year with them.
So the football is shaping up as follows:
Longford 8 (+26)
Wexford 6 (+21)
Antrim 6 (+8)
Roscommon 6 (+8)
We play Roscommon at home next Sunday before finishing up with two away games against Longford and Antrim.
Youād still expect two wins to be enough for promotion, and yesterdayās win had further positive score difference implications, but there could be a scenario where we could fall short if we lose to Antrim and win the other two.
Hurling Team for Sunday has been announced:
Breen;
Tonks, Rossiter, Kehoe;
Stamp, OāHanlon, Kenny;
Kehoe, Redmond;
Berry, Quigley, Nolan;
Jacob, Banville, OāKeeffe.
Subs: Martin, Kenny, Moore, Kehoe, Guiney, Leacy, OāLeary, Sinnott, Morris.
I make that 6 changes. Plus a positional switch with OāHanlon and Rossiter starting in the positions they finished last Sundayās game in.
Breen, Tonks, Stamp, Berry, Jacob and Banville in for Martin, Kenny, Leacy, Kehoe, OāLeary and Sinnott.