Davy expects no favours in Clare contest
SATURDAY night in Thurles read like an open letter from Jason Forde to Davy Fitzgerald, the Silvermines player hitting a classy 2-9. The impressive haul included eight frees and a sweet sideline cut as Tipperary emerged triumphant, just as they did in the 2017 Allianz League semi-final that made all sorts of headlines for the Wexford manager’s pitch incursion and altercation with the Tipperary forward.
‘The right kind of headlines this year,’ remarked Tipperary manager Michael Ryan afterwards. ‘He’s an exceptional finisher, and he’s proven that yet again.’
Tipp will be missing a number of stars though, including Forde, for next weekend’s game against a Kilkenny side fighting to avoid a relegation play-off. Forde, John McGrath, Barry Heffernan and Paul Maher, are all set to backbone the UL team who face DCU in the Fitzgibbon Cup final on Saturday and Ryan confirmed that he would not be asking them to line out twice within 24 hours.
Forde’s delightful pick and strike off the stick without breaking stride kept his side in touch when Wexford were the team full of energy and invention early on, until a scoring blitz in the run-up to half-time saw all six Premier County forwards make the scoresheet and the home side surge seven ahead, 1-15 to 1-8.
‘Trust me it wasn’t a nice place to be in that dressing room at halftime and you’re down seven,’ admitted Fitzgerald afterwards. ‘We got absolutely pulverised for the 10 minutes coming up to halftime. So the lads were a bit down. We didn’t give out. We chatted about it. We said, “Okay, what have we got to do here to get out of this?” We tried something a small bit different in the second half and I thought it worked.’
If Daragh Mooney hadn’t pulled off two stunning saves from Conor McDonald in the final 10 minutes, Wexford could easily have taken something from the game.
Missed chances were the real difference. Lee Chin chalked up five wides from frees — most of them tricky ones from distance — but was a rampaging presence right to the end as Wexford poured their heart and soul into with Tipp needing Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher’s late, late goal to be safe.
Next up for Fitzgerald? A joust against his native Clare. In mellow form afterwards, he laughed at the suggestion he might return to his glass box up in the stand like last summer against Kilkenny when he was serving a sideline suspension. ‘I’ll be on the sideline, boy! We’ll see what happens,’ he said.
‘I know a lot of them lads, I’ve won a lot of stuff with them lads. I’ve nothing but admiration for them. But I feel the Clare lads will lift it massively playing against me. I really do. Why is that? They’ll want to perform against me, I know that. It’s not out of lack of respect. I know they’ll want to do it big-time against me. They’ll be coming to Wexford Park all guns blazing.
‘The most important thing for Wexford is, we were odds on to go down. We lost tonight. We still might go down. But we’re able to compete. We’re not throwing in the towel. We’re not afraid. That’s very big for these lads.’
TIPPERARY: D Mooney; S O’Brien, J Barry; D Maher; B Heffernan (B McCarthy 53), Pádraic Maher, P Feehan; B Maher, R Maher; S Curran (G Browne 60), N McGrath, Patrick Maher; M Breen (M Russell 65), J Forde, J McGrath. Scorers: J Forde 2-9 (8fs, 1 s-l), Patrick Maher 1-2, J McGrath 0-2, M Breen, S Curran, N McGrath, B Heffernan, D Maher, R Maher, B McCarthy, Pádraic Maher 0-1. Yellow card: J Forde 8, B Heffernan 17, J McGrath 54 WEXFORD: M Fanning; C Firman, L Ryan, D Reck; S Murphy (H Kehoe 62); D O’Keeffe (E Martin 70), M O’Hanlon, P Foley; K Foley, A Nolan; Jack O’Connor, D Dunne (C Dunbar 59), L Chin; P Morris (R O’Connor 48), C McDonald. Scorers: L Chin 0-10 (4fs, 2 65s), A Nolan 1-0 (pen), P Morris 0-3 (3fs), K Foley, Jack O’Connor 0-2, C McDonald, S Murphy, D Dunne, R O’Connor 0-1. Yellow card: J O’Connor 36. Ref: J McGrath (Westmeath).
PHILIP LANIGAN reports from Semple Stadium