Footballers freeze as crowd see red
THE WEXFORD Senior footballers made life difficult for themselves in their quest for a semi-final spot when they produced their worst display of the season in going down to a more composed Galway outfit by 0-15 to 1-7 in the Allianz League Division 1B clash in Wexford Park on March 27, 2005.
And while the bizarre performance of referee Michael Collins was the main talking point afterwards, the bottom line was that the card-happy Cork official wasn’t to blame for this disappointing defeat.
He certainly raised frustration levels to an all-time high among the Wexford contingent on the field and in the 4,722 crowd, but he wasn’t responsible for the shoddy approach of the home team who left a tried and trusted gameplan to one side for some unknown reason.
Wexford manager Pat Roe wasn’t a happy camper after the game. ‘We had the chance today to seal our place in the semi-finals and we weren’t able to do it,’ he said.
‘I am very disappointed with our performance. We didn’t stick to our gameplan, overplayed the ball and didn’t play it into the players in space.
‘We just banged the ball all over the place, with no structure or pattern to our game, the Laois man explained.
‘We didn’t score from play in the second-half which tells its own story.’
The experimental rules of the day meant that a player receiving a yellow card had to be replaced, and four players per side suffered this fate: Diarmuid Kinsella, Nicky Lambert, Matty Forde and Paddy Colfer for the home team.
Forde blasted a penalty over the bar after a foul on captain John Hudson in the opening half, while the Starlights man had grabbed the goal in the eleventh minute after Redmond Barry intercepted an ill-advised short Galway free.
Although Wexford led by 1-4 to 0-6 at halftime, Galway took over after the dismissal of Forde to win by a five-point margin.
Wexford: John Cooper; Colm Morris, Philip Wallace, Niall Murphy; Shane Cullen, David Murphy, George Sunderland; Diarmuid Kinsella, Nicky Lambert; Redmond Barry (0-2 frees), Paddy Colfer, John Hegarty; Ciarán Deely, John Hudson (capt., 1-0), Matty Forde (0-5, 1 pen., 1 free). Subs. - Brendan Doyle for Kinsella (yellow card), Jason Lawlor for Deely, P.J. Banville for Lambert (yellow card), Kieran Kennedy for Forde (yellow card), Darren Browne for Hudson, Robert Mageean for Colfer (yellow card).