Hurlers lose by 2. Does that win guarantee div 2 status next year?
I don’t think so, division is very tight, a win over Westmeath next monday should.
Wonderful performance. Like night and day compared to last week. Superb stuff.
Standouts? Bandage
Sounded like Red, Murphy, Waters and roche
Great result. Looking forward to reading Bandages report on the game.
Shame about the hurlers, last minute 20m free, goal to win it but it was stopped.
limierick only beat Carlow by 2 points…
[quote=“count of monte cristo, post: 746515, member: 348”]Shame about the hurlers, last minute 20m free, goal to win it but it was stopped.
limierick only beat Carlow by 2 points…[/quote]
3 pts! 
My apologies. Watchyourtoes
I’m uncomfortable with you being friendly towards me, padjo. What gives?
Hurry up with the fuckin report…
Wexford 2-13 Louth 2-9
An excellent victory for Wexford today following a very impressive performance in Drogheda. There were four changes from the published team with Tom Hughes resuming in goal, Michael Furlong replacing Robert Tierney at corner back, James Holmes for Aindreas Doyle with Adrian Flynn pushing back to wing back and Rory Quinlivan coming into midfield for Craig Doyle.
There was a howling gale blowing straight down the pitch and we played against it in the first half. We deployed Red Barry as an extra defender / sweeper right from the start and it worked very well indeed. They didn’t push anybody forward onto him until the second quarter so it enabled us to again use the short kick-out to good effect in the early exchanges and carry the ball forward into the teeth of the wind.
They were a point up before we struck for our first goal. It came from impressive support play with Barry breaking forward into a gap after a series of short passes and playing a delightful arrowed pass from the right half forward position with the outside of his foot into the path of a crossfield Shane Roche run from right to left. The ball tempted the defender who tried to cut it out but it was beautifully shaped around him and Roche collected, made inroads towards goal and coolly slotted it past the keeper. A lovely fucking goal indeed.
Our second goal arrived soon after and their keeper played a significant part in it. He initially tried to play a pass out to a loose player in the left half back area but it was underhit and intercepted by James Holmes, who carried it forward and had a point attempt. The ball held up in the wind and, with the keeper flapping, it appeared to come back off the bar where Paddy Byrne was first to react in claiming the rebound, selling a dummy to the defender and finishing low with his left foot past the keeper. Adrian Flynn then kicked a very good score after joining an attack from a deep position and 2-1 to 0-2 represented a great start given how difficult it was playing towards the Hunky Dory Park end.
However, they struck for their first goal at the end of the first quarter and it came from a Brian White free off the ground from 45 yards out. He didn’t catch it right or get enough height on it but, with the sheer strength of the wind, it still fairly fizzed in towards the goal at just above head height where full forward Shane Lennon rose highest to get a flicked fist on it to divert it into the goal. Not much we could do about it, and it was pretty fortunate, but I guess they could argue we had a bit of luck for our second goal.
Louth then pushed a man forward on to Barry to prevent us from building from the back via a short kick-out and the play was condensed inside our own half for the rest of the first half due in large parts to the gale. There was generally 25 players inside our half with our lineup looking something like this:
Hughes__
Furlong, Molloy, Wadding,
Barry
Flynn, Murphy, Malone,
Holmes, Waters, Quinlivan, Byrne,
Banville
(the half way line)_
Brosnan
Roche__
We broke forward to register another point and it again came from Roche stealing in behind the defence to accept a pass before slamming it narrowly over the bar with his left as he cut in from the right. It was 2-2 to 1-3 after 24 minutes and we had our backs to the wall from then to half time and made a few turnovers which ultimately resulted in points for them. But you couldn’t fault the workrate, intensity and commitment and it was like night and day compared to the display against Derry last weekend.
Daithi Waters was having another powerful game in midfield (winning considerably more than his fair share of kick-outs even though the ball was barely travelling to our own '45, hanging in the air and being more advantageous for the Louth players attacking it from behind him) and the backs were defending manfully with David Murphy a calming influence at centre back. Tom Hughes made a good save low to his right at 2-2 to 1-4 when one of their subs got a fist to a free that dropped short but their territory and pressure finally told in the last 3 or 4 minutes before half time when they got a run of points. A couple of these were booming efforts from distance and it was 1-7 to 2-2 at half time.
The second half got underway after half time, as tends to be the case, but I was in shock after realising during the interval that I’d ingested my own genitals due to the incredible fucking cold and I lost a bit of concentration during the second half. I think Roche kicked our first point of the second half from a free after a foul on Banville and the latter responded to a Louth point with his first point of the day before they struck for a goal to extend their lead to 4 points at 2-8 to 2-4. The full forward won a low ball on the '45 in front of Molloy and managed to transfer it to some other cunt storming through the middle. That cunt drew the man before popping it off to another cunt whose point blank effort was excellently saved by Hughes only for a different cunt to slide in and drill the rebound into the net. Cunts.
This was a bad period of the game for us - we were collectively struggling and seemed a bit unsure what approach to take to maximise the wind advantage. They had dropped a man back and we were outnumbered when battling for the long early balls forward and there was a 5-minute spell when there was no score. Brosnan had another quiet game and was replaced by Conor Carty with around 20 minutes left - he was to have a brilliant impact.
But first Roche pointed a free from the hands from 50 yards - a very important score after the scoreless spell and it showed good character after he struggled with his frees in Armagh - and we really kicked on from there. We pressed forward as a unit and pinned them back, as they had done to us in the second quarter of the first half, and forced a series of turnovers with some superb and disciplined gang tackling. This meant we were gaining possession closer to goal and were able to hit the forwards with more accurate ball rather than relying on more hopeful punts forward.
Barry was playing a traditional centre forward position in the second half after his sweeper role earlier on and he kicked a point on the run to reduce the gap to two. Then another Roche free from way out landed short and was palmed off by Wadding to Holmes who slotted over. Conor Carty won the break from the resulting kick-out and flighted over a beautiful equalising point from distance with the outside of his foot - 4 points in 4 minutes and it was 2-8 apiece.
Roche then added 2 more points - 1 a relatively straightforward free and the other a smashing effort from the left with his left foot that also had a touch of fade on it. Lennon was sent off for them in between these scores for a second yellow offence - it actually seemed Molloy fouled him as they raced out to a ball but the referee didn’t award anything and I’m not sure whether he lashed out or said something to the referee. Lennon and Molloy had been booked in the first half for a bit of high jinks as they were waiting for a free to be taken.
We had complete control of the game at this stage and were utterly dominant in midfield. As a result, they were only making occasional forays into our half and, even when they did, our backs were marking very tightly, tackling well and regaining possession. PJ Banville then slotted over a good score with his right foot from the left - his first point had been from the same side with his left and Conor Carty, who won a lot of possession from Waters and Quinlivan breaking down opposition kick-outs, knocked over another very good score from distance. Their final score was a second huge Brian White free from off the ground into the gale from distance - very impressive - but Barry rounded off the scoring when Waters knocked a throw ball down to him and he rifled it over from 30 yards out.
Overall, this was a brilliant response after the insipid display against Derry and the collective workrate and intensity to our display was excellent. The sweeper tactic in the first half worked a treat with Red Barry using his football intelligence to read the game, as well as breaking forward to good effect and setting up the first goal. Our start was crucial and it took them too long to react to our set up. We were in a good position at half time but needed to overcome a rocky 10 minute period between the 40th and 50th minute when we conceded the second goal. We finished very strongly, which was encouraging after giving up the large lead in Armagh and falling away miserably in the second half against Derry.
The backs were very solid as a unit with Wadding and Murphy being particularly prominent and Michael Furlong looking at home in the corner. Quinlivan got through a lot of good work in midfield but Waters was magnificent again and completely outplayed their star man Paddy Keenan. That was one of Roche’s best games for Wexford given the tough conditions and exchanges - 1-5 overall and 1-2 from play and Banville again constantly showed for and won the ball and contributed two points from play. Conor Carty had a classy 2 point cameo and James Holmes can be satisfied with his contribution too.
Away wins are the business. Well done, Wexford.
Scorers: Roche 1-5 (0-3 F), Byrne 1-0, Banville 0-2, Barry 0-2, Carty 0-2, Flynn 0-1, Holmes 0-1.
Allianz National Football League Division 2 victories for Wexford managers:
Jason Ryan - 0 in 5 years;
Aidan O’Brien - 2 in 5 weeks.
Well done Bandage, you called that sham of a Ryan out a long time ago.
Speaking of Ryan, all the journos were saying he was the man to be credited for Kildares high scoring in recent games. What a load of cock. He was one of the most cautious managers I’d ever seen. Glad that Kildare were hammered yesterday so people can stop pretending he’s some kind of miracle worker.
Did anyone go to the hurling?
Seems like we played with a strong first half wind but shot a fair few wides and only went in 0-10 to 0-6 in front. They pretty much wiped out the lead immediately after half time but we responded and pushed back in front by 0-13 to 0-10. They scored six points in succession before Paul Morris reduced the gap to two and Mark Fanning had a 21-yard free saved by his opposite number at the death.
I know I’ve been going on about it but the scoreline suggests the plethora of injuries to our forwards hurt us. But from the snippets I’ve heard and read on the Wexford site, it appears that Shore had another very good game at full back and Richie Kehoe was similarly impressive at centre back. Paul Morris shot 10 points having taken over free taking duties from Gary Moore (including a few from play) and he’s progressing very well. Lee Chin apparently had a nice second half cameo having been left out due to his recent workload between senior hurling and football and U21 football in midweek.
Aside from all the absent forwards, we also still have Keith Rossiter, Eoin Moore and Ciarán Kenny to come back into the defence so it’ll be interesting to see how we respond to this defeat. There seems to be some positives to take out of it though.
[quote=“Bandage, post: 746742, member: 9”]Did anyone go to the hurling?
Seems like we played with a strong first half wind but shot a fair few wides and only went in 0-10 to 0-6 in front. They pretty much wiped out the lead immediately after half time but we responded and pushed back in front by 0-13 to 0-10. They scored six points in succession before Paul Morris reduced the gap to two and Mark Fanning had a 21-yard free saved by his opposite number at the death.
I know I’ve been going on about it but the scoreline suggests the plethora of injuries to our forwards hurt us. But from the snippets I’ve heard and read on the Wexford site, it appears that Shore had another very good game at full back and Richie Kehoe was similarly impressive at centre back. Paul Morris shot 10 points having taken over free taking duties from Gary Moore (including a few from play) and he’s progressing very well. Lee Chin apparently had a nice second half cameo having been left out due to his recent workload between senior hurling and football and U21 football in midweek.
Aside from all the absent forwards, we also still have Keith Rossiter, Eoin Moore and Ciarán Kenny to come back into the defence so it’ll be interesting to see how we respond to this defeat. There seems to be some positives to take out of it though.[/quote]
Is Paudie Butler involved in the set up there Bandage?
Apparently so. Croke Park tried to block it because of some rule preventing those employed by the GAA in coaching roles from being part of inter-county management teams but the great Liam Dunne called out that knobend Duffy on it and I understand Butler’s involved more on a part-time / consultancy basis. Or that could be completely wrong.
Just thinking what a shame the wasted years with Paul Bealin and Jason Ryan were. We would have won all and sundry if Aidan O’Brien had been in charge when magnificent players like Matty Forde and Colm Morris were in their prime and the likes of Redmond Barry and David Murphy were emerging. Now his task is to make us competitive when our key players, like the latter two mentioned, are in their 30s.
Great to see Bandage feels comfortable enthusing about our native sports again after some of the virulent anti GAA cyber bullies have gone to ground. 
Wouldn’t be shocked to see Lyng make an appearance on Monday