WEXFORD V DOWN Div 3 F

[imagine]

  And now for the next match-Away to Wexford March 2nd.

[western exile]

Not much in it so far!

Division 3                                     
Team      Played      Won      Drawn      Lost      For      Against   Pts    Diff      Pts.
Wexford      2        2             0             0         31         25               6            4
Down          2         2              0           0          32          27             5          4

[wobbller]

 Where and what time is the game on Sunday?

[scalder]

Not 100% but I think its Wexford Park, 2.30pm throw in. I think Wexford by 2 points in this one lads!

[Model Hammer]

Wexford recall Clongeen duo
28 February 2008

The Clongeen duo of Nicky O'Sullivan and Colin Byrne have been restored to the Wexford team for Sunday's top-of-the-table NFL Division 3 clash with Down at Wexford Park.

O'Sullivan is named at right half back, while Byrne comes in at right corner forward. The players to lose out are George Sunderland and Adrian Morrissey. There is one positional change which sees Pauric Curtis move from wing forward to wing back.

Wexford (SF v Down): A Masterson; C Morris, P Wallace, D Walsh; N O'Sullivan, B Malone, P Curtis; E Bradley, B Doyle; B Brosnan, R Barry, A Flynn; C Byrne, S Roche, M Forde.

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Reverting to more or less the team that started against Longford. I didn't think the performance in Sligo was all that convincing - I thought Sligo were poor - but to win away from home with 14 men took a huge effort. It would be nice to finish a game with 15 men for a change, although a full-blooded encounter is on the cards I'm sure.
Good to see Ryan keeping faith in the newer lads, although I would expect to see the bench playing a big part, with the experience of David Murphy, Paddy Colfer, Ciaran Lyng, John Hudson all likely to have a say in proceedings at some stage.

It'll be interesting to see if Carr sticks with his winning starting 15, or if he feels it's time to give Coulter and others the start. 100% record in competitive football so far this season, so I guess he's not likely to change much. But equally his use of the bench will be crucial. Both teams have conceded a fair bit so far in the league, so we could have a high-scoring game ...

This will be the biggest test to date for Wexford, so hopefully should bring the lads on a bit more irrespective of the result, but who ever emerges victorious should nearly have one foot in Div 2 ....

[downredblack]

Its a savage drive down and I'm only coming from Dublin , I've a sister in New Ross is the ground far from there ?
With McComiskey Howard and Murney playing yesterday I'd say they will come off the bench at some stage . So maybe Benny to start his first game of 2008 ?
We definitely can't afford to give Wexford a 6 point start ,hopefully Down can sort out the slow start and keep the wining run going .

[Model Hammer]

Straight down the N11 from Dublin. Do it in 2 hours these days. Piece o' cake.
The sister is a bit out of the way though. 2.5 hours to Ross, then another half-hour over to Wexford.

Bring yer sunscreen 

[Aristotle Flynn]

I heard Mark Sidebottomon the wireless earlier saying Down were unchanged. Is that true? No Benny and no McCommisky? Hard to believe unless Benny isn't fit.

[western exile]

The BBC website has that too.   Down unchanged lineup.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/7270629.stm

[scalder]

"Its a savage drive down" - what are you on about, its an hour from Newry to the M50 and its 2 hours from Dublin, Motorway/Dual carrigeway for 75% of the journey.

[downredblack]

I was talking about the drive to New Ross , and there was a little town that took about 40 mins to get through . I cant think of the name of the place . Is that okay for you ?

[western exile]

Myself (Co. Down born and bred) and a New Ross man will be travelling from Connaught to the game. Across country with no motorways. And are happy to do it.  It must be great to have only to  travel from Dublin to New Ross. Lucky you 

[Fíor Gael]

Could anyone who travelled down to the match yesterday give us a brief report, who played well etc. Listened to the commentary on 5fm which switched between the two games(armagh-monghan). Why were Clarke and Sexton taken off??

[western exile]

I will give it a go FG....

Down started the game with a few changes from the originally selected team. Dan Gordan was missing, presumably injured. Ambrose started in his place. Also O'Hanlon did not start with Ronan Murtagh and Declan Rooney as the two wing backs.  Down started well, and were looking as good as they have been this year, for the first 25 minutes. Although Wexford helped them a little bit by committing a lot handling errors. Martin Cole had picked up Mattie Forde and was marshalling him well. During this period Wexford were playing with a 3rd midfielder, and although their big number 8 (Doyle) was getting to the ball first, Down were getting all the breaking ball and hence a lot more attacking possession. Down were defending well and had like a rugby line of defenders moving together at every Wexford attack.  The Wexford management made some changes with about 10 minutes to go in the first half by bringing on a couple of new players and changing back to a 3 man full forward line, which improved them. Around about this time Down were ahead by 7 point to 1. The Down pace and work rate, which had been impressive for the first half hour, seemed to slack off a bit in the last 5 minutes of the first half. The halftime score line could, and possibly should, have been 7-1, but they allowed Wexford 3 late points to leave the half time score at 7 - 4, which give Wexford hope for the second half, especially as they were starting to come into the game.

Down were late to come out for the second half. I wonder what was going on in that changing room?!  And they started with a point from Danny Hughes and it looked like might be continuing as the first half. But Wexford changed tactics, and started hitting ball over the top of the Down defensive line and straight inside the 13m line.  Next thing we knew, Wexford had scored 2-2 in what seemed to be about 2 minutes! If you had looked at your programme you might have missed it!  Mattie Forde had a hand in all of these scores.  The first goal was a flick of the fist, and second was a superb shot. This naturally lifted the Wexford team and the crowd, and Down were chasing the game from then on. Wexford were like a different team from then on. They harassed every Down player when in possession, and dispossessed them on many occasions. They started winning all the breaking ball in midfield and were not making any handling or passing errors any more. So they had most of the possession which resulted in Down failing to score for about 20 minutes.  As the game wore on, it became more apparent that Down were going to need goals to win it.  So they brought on the shotguns, Coulter and McCommiskey. But the problem was that they couldn't get the ball to them, such was their lack of possession. So the substitutions had little effect.  Also, Liam Doyle missed a few free kicks. However, a couple of those were a little ambitious, even for his trusty left peg, as they were taken from over 50m.

Clarke and Sexton had worked hard all day both in attack and in defence, and Clarke in particular looked physically exhausted when he came off.  Ambrose Rodgers was good in the first half, but looked off the pace in the second half. He is not match fit yet.

[western exile]

And I don't believe Ronan Sexton was taken off. I think it was Fagan that came off with Clarke.

And since Wexford owned the midfield in the second half, Jackie Lynch was called ashore and Luke Howard went on in defence with Rooney moving to midfield.  But Ambrose was just as missing as Jackie in second half, after both of them  having a good first half.