Busy weekend for Chin. How’s Waters been doing at fullback? Less opportunities to pull wildly on lads I guess
Haven’t seen either team play yet this year mac so honestly cannot answer…
Why do we have to go to Armagh again, shouldn’t they have to come down?
Not sure how Waters has been playing. I’ve only seen them against Kilkenny when he was injured and Shore played very well there. It’s a pivotal position so hopefully we can get somebody bedded down there during the league.
Moore, Kehoe and Shore are probably defensive certainties with the 3 other positions up for grabs. Rossiter would be expected to come back in to take 1 of them but it’ll be interesting to see if Shore is centre back with Kehoe on the wing or whether it’ll be Shore at full back and Kehoe at centre back.
That starting team looks a bit short of class in the forwards without Lyng, Jacob, Guiney, Quigley, McGovern…
Mullaghglass, Newtownhamilton - both seeping with orangeness. Nearly in Armagh now. Two Kernans and Jamie Clarke won’t be involved tonight apparently, even though they wanted to play. Kernan Senior has them in the Ulster squad for tomorrow instead. Still think it’s unlikely we’ll pick up a victory up here though.
Half Time: Wexford 3-3 Armagh 1-1. Goals from Byrne, Barry (pen) and Roche. Late Armagh goal keeps them in it. They have 3 subs on. Defence is playing very well - Molloy and Chin in central positions have been excellent. Midfield has been strong and Brosnan’s passing and playmaking has been great. Working hard and carrying the ball forward with pace. Leaving Barry and Banville isolated inside. Get a sense we’ll need to withstand an onslaught from them.
I suppose I would have taken a draw before the game…
And an onslaught it was. Full Time: Armagh 3-8 Wexford 3-8. Not good considering we led by 3-8 to 1-5 with 19 minutes left and 3-3 to 0-1 in the first half. 3 points (2 frees) from Brosnan in the second half and 2 from play from Banville (1 outstanding one with his left cutting in on the run).
Their number 20 McParland, who came on in the first half, bagged himself a hat-trick. 2 absolute screamers with his left foot. Last one was a penalty from a dubious foot block decision.
We missed a difficult but makeable free from out wide when 3-8 to 3-7 up. We were really clinging on at the end with 14 men after second half sub Quinlivan was sent off for 2 yellows with a few minutes left. They missed one chance to level but scored a well worked point with the last attack. In fairness we were fortunate that the ref only played 2 minutes extra as Masterson was taking an age over kick-outs.
Armagh were missing the Kernans and Clarke weren’t they? Not too bad I guess as they’ll take points off a good few teams when all are back.
And Jamie Clarke… win would have been nice though.
What Clark did you think Mac was referencing?
One overall match report type post to tie my other match posts together, if you will:
Armagh 3-8 Wexford 3-8
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]The veritable game of two halves tonight and it was ultimately a disappointing end result what with us having led by 3-3 to 0-1 in the first half and by 3-8 to 1-5 with 19 minutes remaining. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]We played well in the first half. Armagh played a sweeper in front of our two man full forward line but that allowed us to build from the back with the extra man. We constantly used the short kick-out to one of the spare defenders and carried the ball forward from the back with pace and impressive support play. And the distribution from midfield to the inside forwards, mainly through Brosnan, was then good enough to bypass/neutralise their sweeper in any event. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Craig Doyle played a long ball over the top for the first goal - Paddy Byrne sprinting forward from deep, gathered it and slipped it under the onrushing keeper. Red Barry dispatched a penalty, which he won himself, for the second goal - a rifled Brosnan pass was caught by Banville, who laid it off to Barry and he was dragged down as he was baring down on goal. Brosnan played a lovely flighted ball to Shane Roche for the third goal. The defender got caught under the ball and Roche was able to catch it and solo in from the right before sliding it past the keeper. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]The defence was in command - particularly Molloy (excellent) and Chin (started in place of Doyle) in the central positions - and midfield was completely on top from the Armagh kick-out too. Brosnan was dropping deep and orchestrating things wonderfully - he’s a cracking player. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Armagh actually made 3 first half substitutions and one of them ended up bagging himself a hat-trick in the end. Rob Tierney was beaten in the air for the first goal - he maybe could have tried to fist/tip it away instead of going up in a fielding battle - but McParland slotted it into the top corner nicely. It gave them a bit of a boost just before half time and I got the sense they’d come at us with an onslaught after the interval. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]There was actually no point scored from play in the first half - Brosnan knocked over two frees and Roche kicked one from the hand (though he missed two frees from wide on the right). Half Time: Wexford 3-3 Armagh 1-1. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]They abandoned the sweeper tactic after our third goal and prevented us from using the short kick-out. One of the subs, Lavery, was also making a difference in midfield and they started the second half by registering 2 quick points. One of their Forkers (Stefan rather than his brother Aiden) blazed over with an open goal at his mercy, though Molloy did well to knock him off balance somewhat as he was kicking. The other point came from a free when Masterson was called for overcarrying on our own '45 after running forward to accept a sideways pass from a free. I have no idea why he keeps coming out and I have no idea why our other players keep giving him the ball when he does. Perhaps he’d stay in goal if they ignored him? [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]But we looked to have stopped any potential comeback in its tracks by scoring three points in succession via a Brosnan free, a Banville fisted point after they messed up the resulting short kick-out and then a great Brosnan effort from play. We then traded 4 points with them - ours through a Brosnan free from wide left and a brilliant Banville curling effort on the run cutting in from the right with his left foot - and we still looked firmly in control when leading by 3-8 to 1-5. Quinlivan had come on for Craig Doyle at this stage and picked up his first yellow for impeding a player who had popped the ball off and went for a return pass. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]I guess the turning point was their second goal - Wadding intercepted a ball into our defence around 20 yards out. He got caught in possession and the ball was laid off for McParland, who absolutely creamed it into the top corner with the outside of his left foot from 14 yards or so. And the tide seemed to be turning against us when they got their third goal soon after from a penalty. Its award seemed dubious enough to me - it may have been for a foot block but I wasn’t sure to be honest. McParland stroked it past Masterson for his hat-trick and there was still 8 minutes or so remaining. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]The momentum was fully with them at that stage and they were getting on top in the middle third and hoovering up most of the breaking ball. The crowd had belatedly roused themselves in support of the home side too, except the two lads in front of me who loudly made a point of expressing their disgust with the Armagh display and left when they trailed by 3-8 to 1-5. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]They picked off another couple of points to reduce the gap to one when Banville earned a hard won free on the 14 yard line wide on the right. Roche, having skied an earlier second half free from further out, badly pulled it wide on the near post for his fourth missed free of the night. And then Quinlivan was sent off for his second yellow and I don’t really know what the offence was. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]We were really clinging on and Masterson was taking an age over kick-outs. They missed a fairly presentable chance to level it near the conclusion of the two minutes additional time but there was time for the kick-out to be taken. Unfortunately they won the break and worked the space to deliver a nice chest high pass into a forward in front of Wadding and he popped it off to another sub arriving at pace to slot over the equaliser. The referee would have been within his rights to play another couple of minutes injury time given the amount of subs and stoppages and our time wasting in the second half so I was thankful enough that he blew it up then, especially with us down to 14. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]So it was one of those weird ones where a draw would have been considered a good result beforehand but it felt like a defeat having led all game and by a wide margin at times too. They were also without the two Kernans and Jamie Clarke, who apparently wanted to be involved after Crossmaglen’s defeat last weekend but the manager decided against it. Kernan Senior has included all three of them in the Ulster squad for tomorrow’s match. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Molloy and Brosnan were the pick of our players. Chin was very prominent in the first half but faded a bit, while Banville was impressive all through in getting free to claim the ball, securing hard-earned possession too and he also got a couple of points in the second half. Waters did a lot of good work in midfield aswell. We paid the price for a couple of individual defensive errors for the goal concessions and lacked a bit of composure as the second half progressed. The missed frees also proved quite costly in the end. Overall, I feel we perhaps lack a bit of panel depth but 3 points from 4 is a solid start. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Scorers: Brosnan 0-5 (0-4 F), Roche 1-1 (0-1 F), Byrne 1-0, Barry 1-0 (Pen), Banville (0-2). [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Bullet Points:[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]First half - good;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Second half - bad;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Should have been better;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Verdana]Could have been worse.[/FONT][/SIZE]
Hurlers away to Carlow today and I can’t see Chin playing after lining out for the footballers last night. John Meyler is in charge of Carlow too.
He started. Seven all whence last I checked.
We’re leading 9-7
Shock to hear mossy waters sent off.
One of theirs gone too…
We’re leading 0-9 to 0-7 at half time after being 0-6 to 0-2 down at one stage. Waters and a Carlow lad have been sent off.
Red card for both teams, the Carlow free taker and Tomas Waters. I don’t know Waters at all but he has to be one of the filthiest cunts ever to play hurling for Wexford. Having him in the first 15 is always a risk. No doubt he’s talented but he never seems to get through a game without some kind of wild pull or stupid mistake. Don’t know why he was sent off today. Just speaking in general terms.
From the Twitter machine
Andre Shore gone fb, Richie centre, Andrew Kenny to wing, Harry K to midfield and playing with 5 fwds
Latest: Carlow 0-13 Wexford 1-10. They’ve scored the last four points.
0-15 to 1-12. Inside the last ten minutes.