Benefit of wind and e
Davy’s native Clare achieve merited vic
CLARE WEXFORD 0-18 0-15
IF THE Wexford Senior hurlers go on to enjoy another fruitful summer, we may well look back on this game as the one that brought some of the more expectant supporters crashing down to earth.
Playing with an extra man from the 28th minute onwards, and with a gale of wind in their favour for the second-half, they seemed well placed to erase their 0-12 to 0-4 interval deficit as manager Davy Fitzgerald welcomed his native Clare to Chadwicks Wexford Park for this Allianz League Division 1, Group B, second round game on a miserable Sunday afternoon.
However, a Tony Kelly masterclass effectively put paid to their victory hopes, with the classy midfielder nailing the vital frees and also adding two priceless points from play into the elements to give new boss Brian Lohan a pleasing win over his former team-mate.
The spat between the duo was well documented in the lead-up to the game, and the customary handshake between managers certainly didn’t happen in the immediate aftermath of the action as both were drawn on to the field towards their own players.
Whether the duo will reconcile doesn’t really matter to Wexford followers one way or the other, and they were more concerned leaving the ground by the flat nature of the display.
Indeed, even though five points were pulled back inside eleven minutes of the second-half to bring the gap down to three, the home side never managed to draw level, let alone get ahead of their Munster rivals who had enjoyed a handy win over Carlow on the first weekend.
In fairness to the players, they have given us more good days than bad since their last home defeat in a league game, against the then All-Ireland champions Limerick in late January last year.
And it’s precisely because we have grown accustomed to seeing them playing so well that this loss came like a bolt from the blue, with Clare repeating the margin of their 2019 success in Ennis (2-22 to 1-22).
Developing a stronger panel remains an ongoing issue, and the outcome of this game certainly highlighted how vital the main missing trio of Lee Chin, Matthew O’Hanlon and Diarmuid O’Keeffe are to the cause.
Only two substitutes were introduced, the experienced pair of Aidan Nolan and Harry Kehoe, so the jury remains out on the relatively new arrivals since most of them haven’t locked horns with a topranked team in a competition that really matters yet.
Of those who did get an opportunity, Joe O’Connor looks like he could have a role to play and has taken his chance in the full-back line, while the management were sufficiently impressed with the progress made by Aidan Rochford to pit him against Tony Kelly in midfield.
Shaun Murphy was trying to keep tabs on the Clare star by the end, and doing his level best to put him off his game as both picked up yellow cards for an off-the-ball incident, but this was a vintage showing by a player who remains a joy to watch when in full flow.
The presence of one of Kelly’s 2013 All-Ireland winning team-mates, Brendan Bulger, as the latest addition to the Wexford backroom added another interesting dimension to proceedings on a day when the home side were captained by Pádraig Foley who started at centre-back.
Clare had first use of the very strong wind blowing towards the town end, and the big and bustling David Fitzgerald, who appears to have made an effective switch from defence to attack, posted the first of his three points after a mere 16 seconds.
Conditions were difficult, with the elements making the flight of the dropping ball extremely hard to judge, and there was no real flow to a first-half featuring a total of 23 frees, 13 for the hosts.
A foul committed by Damien Reck led to Tony Kelly doubling Clare’s advantage in the fifth minute with the first of his dozen points.
Mark Fanning’s puck-out didn’t work out as intended, with corner-forward Ryan Taylor lapping it up to rifle a shot over the bar, and he came very close to adding a goal just 40 seconds later.
The lively Shane O’Donnell got his stick to the re-start and found David Fitzgerald whose handpass to his right left Taylor with a clear sight of goal. He was definitely going for it too, but the ball whizzed over via the crossbar to the relief of a Wexford side who didn’t create even one decent goalscoring chance in contrast when they had the wind behind them.
The gap grew to 0-5 to nil in the eighth minute when Kelly landed a free from his own 65-metre line, and it was clear that Wexford needed to get some sort of a grip in order to stay in contention.
Cathal Dunbar, who started at centre-forward, was narrowly off target with their first wide, and Kelly converted another placed ball from distance before the home side finally opened their account.
It came courtesy of a Jack O’Connor free in the 14th minute, after Conor McDonald won a delivery from Pádraig Foley and was fouled.
And it was the first of three strikes from the St. Martin’s man that brought his side back into contention, as he added a second after Paul Morris was impeded when he controlled the scorer’s neat ball in from midfield.
Rory O’Connor and Eoin Quirke were booked in separate incidents before the deficit became altogether more manageable from a Wexford point of view.
Some dissent from David Fitzgerald resulted in referee Seán Cleere bringing the ball forward after a foul on McDonald, and Jack O’Connor duly made it a threepoint game as Tony Kelly had to retire briefly with a blood injury.
David Reidy missed a scorable free in his absence and, although they were ahead by 0-6 to 0-3, the odds seemed to be stacked against Clare when their captain, John Conlon, received a straight red card for a high tackle on sweeper Kevin Foley in the 28th minute.
A needless point was conceded in the immediate aftermath, as Pádraig Foley didn’t spot Liam Ryan to his right and was instead blocked by the returned Kelly who duly knocked over the free after the Crossabeg-Ballymurn man fouled Fitzgerald.
Wexford’s sole first-half point from play arrived in the 32nd minute, with Kevin Foley moving forward and supplying Aidan Rochford for a well-taken confidence-boosting score (0-7 to 0-4).
However, the remainder of the opening period, including four and a half added minutes, wasn’t good from their point of view.
Joe O’Connor and his cousin, Jack (free), brought their wides tally to three, but of more concern and of greater impact on the end result was the manner in which Clare tacked on five points in a mere seven minutes.
Pádraig Foley fouled Ryan Taylor, and Conor McDonald was then penalised for charging, with Tony Kelly doing the needful for his team on both occasions.
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