Festy steps up for senior club debut
THEY SAY that every cloud has a silver lining, and Festy Ebosele won’t be disagreeing with that old saying this week. Championship club Derby County were decimated to such an extent by Covid-19 that none of their first team players or backroom staff were available for Saturday’s trip to face non-league Chorley in the third round of the FA Cup.
Interim manager Wayne Rooney and his entire squad were self-isolating, so it was left to youth development coach Pat Lyons to choose a Derby side without even one minute of senior gametime between them.
Eighteen-year-old Festy started his soccer career in Enniscorthy, and his family still live in the Cathedral town.
And while he began on the bench against the National League North side, it was a proud day for himself and the extended Ebosele family when he came on for his full debut.
The game was the main focus on Saturday night’s Match of the Day programme on BBC1, and the camera lingered on Wexford’s latest cross-channel soccer player a couple of times.
Chorley, from the sixth tier, won 2-0, and in the circumstances it wasn’t as big of a shock as some media outlets proclaimed.
Festy joined the midlands outfit from Bray Wanderers before the start of the 2018-’19 season.
After two years as a scholar in the Derby academy, he is midway through his first season as a professional with their Under-23 outfit.
Saturday represented another major stepping stone for the former Moyne Rangers schoolboy, who has represented the Republic of Ireland at Under-17 and Under-19 level.