That was a smashing blazer/sports coat being sported by Tony Dempsey. 
Shane Fenlon RIP.
Leacy and McGovern starting for Wexford.
Great start by Chinner with a hook and a lovely pass.
Half Time: Kilkenny 2-9 Wexford 1-5.
Jesus Christ, we donāt help ourselves. We were outscored 2-8 to 0-1 over the last 20 minutes. Missed chances, sloppy defending and general naive play. Guineyās about to take a penalty and WE make him wait by bringing on a substitute. Could it not fucking wait until after he hit it? Some of the misses have been of the easy variety and we were slow to make positional changes in our half forward line and full back line. I prefer my goalkeepers to stand up too.
Jack Guiney has missed a possible 1-4 wide, from general play heās been pretty much useless. Willie Dev is getting roasted. We were well on top, getting on to breaks, looked far the sharper, but since the goal, gone off the boil altogether.
This is a fairly embarrassing capitulation despite OāReganās goal just now. I thought weād be very competitive here but theyāve now outscored us 3-12 to 1-1 since we were 1-4 to 0-1 up. Silly indiscipline by Devereux to get sent off too but Iām not sure he should have been moved from corner back to wing back for the second half. He was struggling badly in the first half and we could have used our bench instead.
Only thing about that red card for Deveraux is that itās a pity it wasnāt a straight one, he is chronic.
Fuck this - what a truly pathetic performance. Thereās only thing for it:
Another four or five 21 yard frees n we have this in the bag
He can fairly hit them alright. Its a wonder Richie Doyle can walk after stopping the one in the first half with his tackle.
Some pile of stink that was.
Hate the feeling when weāre 12 points down against Kilkenny with 15 minutes left and we get a goal and instantly start to think about the rate of goals per minute that we need to win it.
Muck. Anyone know the wide count? Shocking.
Fanning - Poor. Doesnāt stand up to shots on goal.
Deveraux - Chronic. I absolutely hate this shite of throwing the hurl too.
O Hanlon - Poor, gave away a huge amount of frees.
Nolan - Chronic.
Goff - Probably the best back we had.
Laecy - Too many clearances thrown up into the faces of KK forwards, resulting in possession being turned over.
Moloney - Poor.
Nolan - Wasnāt on ball a huge amount. Poor.
O Keefe - Thought he was Wexfords best on day. Uses the ball very well.
Chin - Poor in 1st half but when brought to half back line, cleared a lot of ball.
Moore - Poor.
Guiney - His general play is very poor. Has a rocket of a shot for 21 yard frees, but offers nothing from open play.
Carton - Got the goal and thatās about it.
O Regan - When we were using him, he was going well, then we stopped using him and he went out of it all together.
McGovern - Poor.
Didnāt think any of the subs offered anything. Very poor overall. This is yet another team that thereās been high hopes for, only to fall flat on the big day. We got into a 1-4 to 1 lead, instead of driving on, they immediately got a goal bak and they never looked back after that. We looked far the sharper for 1st 15 minutes but Cartons goal completely woke them up. Eembarassing performance. Some of the wifeās were terrible.
How is Ian Byrne on senior panel then canāt start this evening?
Whoops.
*wides!
That was very disheartening indeed tonight. Obviously itās clear that weāre off the pace in senior inter-county hurling but weāve been fairly competitive in minor and U21 over the past 2 or 3 years and defeated Kilkenny in the U21 championship last year for example. A lot of these players are highly rated and thereās a feeling in some quarters (and one which I shared) that better days are on the horizon as we integrate them into the senior set up over the next few years. So to see the U21s hammered by their Kilkenny peers tonight was a real disappointment and makes you stop and think. They were sharper, more skillful, physically stronger and tougher mentally and we meekly surrendered after they got to grips with our challenge after 10 minutes. I guess it would be foolish to completely write them off based on this sole showing but I thought we had the players to do much, much better.
Fairly tragic story. The poor lad suffered for a long time. They had a massive fundraiser in Monageer a month or so ago to raise cancer awareness and as a kind of send off for him. At least he got to see a massive turnout and spend some time with those closest to him for a happy occasion. Hadnāt realised he passed till I met his girlfriends brother on Tuesday. RIP.
Nearly always ended up marking him on the hurling field and weād always end up having a few dirty digs at each other every game for some reason. But as always would shake hands after or say hello when out and about in town. Seemed a decent sort anyway.
Whatever about oul lads dying of cancer, itās a tough one to leave the game early. RIP
RIP
Far be it for me to criticise a great Fianna Fail man like Tony Dempsey but who was the rational behind replacing a corner forward in injury time in the first half. It ended up delaying Guiney taking the penalty which he missed.