High hopes of home showdown v Dubs

October 2001

The Wexford County Board will be pulling out all the stops to bring the Dublin senior football team to Wexford Park next Summer, after they drew the men from the capital in the quarter-finals of the 2002 Leinster Senior Football Championship.

The sides met in Croke Park when they last clashed in the championship (a quarter-final tie last year, which Dublin won by 2-20 to 1-8). The County Board will be hoping that the fact that Wexford travelled to Dublin the last time, plus the availability of the new 25,000 capacity upgraded Wexford Park, will be enough to convince the fixture-makers to put the game on in Wexford this time.

If they do, it will give Wexford an obvious advantage, and should attract a bumper crowd.

If the Wexfordmen beat the Dubs, they will play either Carlow, Westmeath, or Meath in the semi-final. If they lose, they will go into the qualifying draw for the first round draw of the All-Ireland series.

- Note: The game ended up being fixed for Dr Cullen Park in Carlow on June 1, 2002, and Dublin won by 0-15 to 1-10.

The date was significant as Ireland had played Cameroon in the World Cup Finals in Japan at 8 a.m. (Irish time) that day.

Six Dubs fans, fuelled up by a full day’s drinking because of both matches, stripped off completely and took to the pitch for a real ‘streaking’ exhibition at half time.