The Wexford hurlers travelled to Nowlan Park on Sunday afternoon…
On a Bank Holiday Sunday, neither Wexford or Kilkenny could be separated at Nowlan Park, with the score-line reading 2-16 apiece at the full-time whistle.
Here, we look through the major talking points from the game.
Poor first-half:
It was a poor first-half performance from both Wexford and Kilkenny. The crowd were somewhat dejected at half-time, wondering what was happening to both teams. Kilkenny led at the break on a score-line of 0-9 to 0-5. Wexford’s free-taker Lee Chin had missed four frees in the first-half that would typically go over on any other day, but the windy conditions made it difficult. The game was scrappy, with a lot of missed passes, a lot of bad first touches, and a lot of fumbling. The supporters hoped for a different game in the second half, and thankfully, that’s what they got.
A fair result:
Although Wexford did improve in the second-half, it was a far cry from the performance that they put in last week in the Walsh Cup final against Galway. When Kevin Foley scored Wexford’s first goal with fourteen minutes played in the second-half, it put Wexford 1-11 to 0-12 up. A Kilkenny penalty 10 minutes later courtesy of Billy Drennan then placed Kilkenny with a three point lead. Both Wexford and Kilkenny started to pop points over and Wexford scored a goal courtesy of Cian Byrne soon after. Another Kilkenny penalty in the 69th minute would have many teams demoralised, but Wexford’s never-say-die attitude was prevalent again. Into injury time, Seamus Casey was through on goal in the 71st minute and Kevin Foley followed through to tap the ball in past Eoin Murphy following his initial stop. Kilkenny did have a huge chance to win it, with Billy Drennan stepping up to take a free in the 73rd minute, but to Wexford’s delight, the ball dropped into the hands of goalkeeper Mark Fanning. On another day, it could have went over. Wexford will be relatively happy with the result given the fact that they were down by three points in the 69th minute and due to the fact that Kilkenny had a chance to secure the two League points at the end.
Recks’ sending off:
Another talking point from the game was the sending off to Wexford’s centre-back, Damen Reck. Reck has been in flying form in the previous matches, and his sending off in the 69th minute to give away the penalty, will mean that he will miss next week’s clash against Offaly. It will give manager Keith Rossiter a small headache as he thinks of his best replacement for Reck. Perhaps, he will look at full-back Conor Foley, who was up the field quite a bit and actually popped over two points from play too. Foley played at wing-back for the Wexford Senior hurlers in some games last year, while he played in the centre-back position for the u-21’s last season too; he definitely doesn’t look out of place at Senior level and it could be the obvious switch. Alternatively, with Simon Donohoe receiving some minutes at the end of the game, the Shelmaliers could be a good option either.
Attacking substitutions:
Wexford’s substitutions, especially those in attack, proved to be excellent. Thomas Kinsella was brought on mid-way through the second-half and he raised the white flag on two occasions, with two points coming from play. Another substitute that had a significant impact on the scoresheet was Fethard’s Cian Byrne, who came onto the field on the 59th minute mark. Byrne finished the tally with 1-01 from play. Although his goal wasn’t an exceptional one by any means, it was an extremely important one and he was in the right position at the right time to tap the ball in.
Next up:
Next up for the Wexford Senior hurlers in the Allianz Hurling League is a home-clash against Offaly. Offaly hurling is on the rise in recent years. They have won the previous two u-20 Leinster Hurling Championships, beating Wexford on both occasions. Even though this game may come a bit too early for the Offaly youngsters, they will be looking forward to giving Wexford a crack too. On the other hand, there will be multiple Wexford players apart of those runner-up panels who will be eagerly awaiting for the opportunity to play a game against Offaly again. With tougher matches still to come, both Wexford and Offaly will see this match as one that they need to win; it would have been ear-marked as a must-win by both teams. The match takes place on Feb 10th in Chadwicks Wexford Park with throw-in at 5pm.
Must Stop Giveing away Frees