Moyne stay in the hunt
Rangers pick up after hard-earned win over Tombrack
MOYNE RANGERS kept themselves right in the hunt for the Wexford Premier League title with a hard-earned victory away at Tombrack United on Sunday.
The Enniscorthy side seemed pleasantly surprised by the state of the pitch.
Given the weather of the past couple of weeks, they had every right to be apprehensive about what would greet them but the hosts deserve great credit for having the surface ready to go.
Obviously, it was still heavy and started to cut up, making it a war of attrition.
That type of pitch doesn’t exactly mesh well with the high-tempo pressing game that is in-vogue at the moment, but Tombrack gave it a go.
It worked well for the best part of half an hour, and they had Moyne under pressure in that spell.
They looked to hit willing runners Richie O’Hara and Eoin Carton with long through-balls and came close a couple of times to breaking a well-oiled Rangers offside trap.
However, Tombrack couldn’t create that one glaring opportunity. That became even more costly when their all-out blitzkrieg edged off one hundred per cent intensity, and Moyne started to locate pockets to play and began to create chances.
Rangers had missed opportunities as they began to pick apart their hosts. Most of them had fallen to James Peare but nothing had come easy.
Indeed, when the Moyne striker swivelled on Johnny Flynn-O’Connor’s nod across goal from John Peare’s cross and tucked a tasty finish past Paul Darcy, it wasn’t exactly the easiest of opportunities either.
Trailing 1-0 at the break, Tombrack threw everything at Moyne again early in the second-half.
They were praying for that one chance, that one big opportunity, and it came, and went, in the 56th minute when Richard Farrell threw himself in front of a James Coleman shot that had, momentarily, looked destined to give Anto Larkin all sorts of problems between the sticks.
Aided by the introduction of Alan Tobin on the right, Moyne began to slice Tombrack open at regular intervals.
Several times they were a skewed shot here, a slightly overhit cross there, away from wrapping up the points until James Peare latched on to brother John’s through-ball, rounded Darcy and tapped into the empty net in the 73rd minute.
Substitute Peter Marsden nodded a great chance for a third wide with three minutes remaining but it mattered little in the end.
This Moyne side might not have the individual talent of North End but they are really well prepared, they are organised and they work hard and will not quit this title race without a fight.
TOMBRACK UNITED: Paul Darcy;
Matty Hendrick, Rory Newe, James Newe, Brian Hayden; Kevin Coleman, Darragh Hendrick, James Coleman, Stephen Ryan; Richie O’Hara, Eoin Carton. Subs. - Dane McGarry for M. Hendrick (58), John Coleman for Ryan (68), Kevin Kenny for O’Hara (68), also John Walsh, Paul Browne, Joe Newe.
MOYNE RANGERS: Anthony Larkin;
Rory O’Connor, Richard Farrell, Pa O’Shea, Seán Burke; Conor Bruce; Peter O’Rourke, Seán Kenny, John Peare, Johnny Flynn-O’Connor; James Peare. Subs. - Alan Tobin for O’Rourke (59), Peter Marsden for Flynn-O’Connor (73), Tomás Mahon for Bruce (84), Lenny Connolly for James Peare (84).