Defeated by Dubs
Frustrating start to Wexford’s campaign
DUBLIN WEXFORD
THE WEXFORD Under-16 camogie team endured a frustrating beginning to their Leinster ‘A’ championship campaign when going down by 1-14 to 1-8 to a slicker Dublin outfit in the opening round tie played at a brilliantly sunny Coolgreany.
In hindsight, the hosts perhaps left their comeback trail too late to seriously concern the Metropolitians, who just found it that bit easier to accumulate scores at the opportune moments.
In fact, Wexford only managed to compile successive unanswered flags on three occasions throughout the hour, with the first sequence arriving in the opening two minutes when a booming Aoife Mahon ice-breaker was added to by a neat effort from Siobhán Sinnott.
Niamh Comerford was a casestudy in finishing for the victors, and the corner-forward had hit the target four times by the 19th minute, including three frees of varying degrees of difficulty.
In between, Muireann Fitzpatrick and Ciara Walsh linked up well for Emma Dempsey to ensure that Wexford remained within arm’s length when trailing by only 0-6 to 0-4.
But Wexford were soon rocked back onto their heels when Dublin pounced for a game-altering 1-2 to firmly stake their claims by the half-time juncture.
Their goal was a brilliant individual effort from Cara Feeney on 27 minutes, as she emerged from traffic before powering home with conviction, while Comerford’s fifth point of the half stretched their ascendancy at the interval to 1-8 to 0-5.
In fairness, Aoife Mahon was a hugely influential figure for Wexford after the break, and she re-ignited some fight with a brace of frees to move the locals to within four points by the 34th minute (1-8 to 0-7).
Méadbh Hicks’ piledriver was always rising as she pointed on 37 minutes, and Feeney also saw a half-goal chance fly over rather than under the crossbar as Dublin found their attacking verve once again.
That said, Wexford really gave themselves a fighting chance of restoring parity with a quickfire burst of 1-1.
Mahon was central to the comeback, first holding her nerve to convert a ‘45 before her quickly-taken free found Emma Dempsey who soloed through before bouncing low to the net as the gap suddenly shrunk to 1-11 to 1-8 with six minutes left.
But Dublin looked affronted by that Wexford purple patch and subsequently accounted for the last three points, including two more placed balls from Comerford, to seal a rather flattering six-point victory.
For the record, Wexford earned almost three times more frees in the second-half as opposed to the first, and 15 of the 27 frees awarded overall in a sportingly-contested game that saw only one yellow card issued, to Dublin’s Ciara Clohessy in second-half injury-time.
Wexford: Sophie Roche; Naoise Hennessy, Amy Cahill, Amy Mitten; Aoife Mahon (0-4, 2 frees, 1 ‘45), Yvonne Kelly, Muireann Fitzpatrick; Aoife O’Connor (capt., 0-1 free), Ciara Walsh; Lorna Fortune (0-1), Emma Dempsey (1-1), Lisa Kelly; Andrea Fielding, Molly Crowdle, Siobhán Sinnott (0-1). Subs. - Lauren Doyle for Mitten, Emma Tomkins for Fielding (43), Nadine Fortune for Hennessy (48), Amy Mitten for Walsh (50).
Dublin: Ciara Jones; Isobel Davis, Kerri Milne, Ali Dunne; Eirin Kennedy, Ciara Clohessy, Aoife Deegan; Rachel Seery, Caitlin Coffey; Katie McDonald, Cara Feeney (1-1), Méadbh Hicks (capt., 0-3); Anna Sullivan (0-1), Amy Quinn, Niamh Comerford (0-8, 5 frees, 1 ‘45). Subs. - Amber Finnegan for Quinn (46), Rachel Dolan for Deegan (48), Aoife Coffey (0-1) for Sullivan (50), Ciara Stack for Hicks (55), Lucy O’Shea for Seery (59).