Garden side spurn good opportunity
LONGFORD X WICKLOW X ON a dull and slightly damp night Wicklow’s under-17 footballers fell to a disappointing nine-point defeat in their inaugural Leinster Under 17 Championship game at Joule Park, Aughrim.
Defeat and particularly the margin of defeat will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Wicklow management and players alike as they had as much of the play but missed some gilt edge chances or else a poor pass or poor option let them down in promising positions.
Time and again Wicklow let the visitors off the hook during purple patches and never really tested the resolve of the Longford men, who held a comfortable lead throughout the second half.
Wicklow started brightly and for the first 20 minutes the sides went toe to toe in exchanging scores.
James Hedderman signalled the early intent with a great turn and run, leaving his man for dead, before the ball was shipped out to corner forward Daniel Ging who opened Wicklow’s account from the left.
Longford soon responded as a well worked move ended in the prominent Dylan Farrell kicking a great score which was soon followed by Aidan McGuire putting them ahead despite the best efforts of the Wicklow backs putting in some great tackles.
Jack Dunne profited off another searing run from Hedderman and the sides were once more level after 6 minutes.
The game was being played at a frenetic pace with the off the ball movement on both sides something to behold. It was from this point on really though that Wicklow may look back and think what might have been.
Daniel Ging got in behind for a sight a goal but his effort was well saved by Eoin McGuinness between the sticks before Ross Ward fired just wide after some brilliant build up play from Wicklow. Dylan Farrell hit a brace to double Longford’s lead although Jack Dunne hit a sweet point on the turn after being well set up by Oisín McGraynor to slice the lead in half.
Longford full back Dylan Cassidy made an incisive run and clipped over a point which was sandwiched in between two poor Wicklow wides as well as an intercepted pass inside the 21.
Longford added another two points as more wayward Wicklow finishing let them down before a pivotal passage in the match arrived just before half-time.
Corner back Mark Reid made a great break up field before releasing Jack Manley through on goal. The Avondale man shot low and hard but unfortunately the ball fizzed just the wrong side of the post.
Within a minute Longford countered and compounded that miss as Diarmuid Sheehan was put through. Eoin Higgins valiantly tracked back and blocked the shot but unfortunately did so with his foot as referee Barry Tiernan pointed to the spot. Aidan McGuire made no mistake and completed a sixpoint swing as Longford went in at the break with a healthy seven-point cushion.
On balance Wicklow were well in the game and if they had converted their scoreable chances they could have been much closer if not ahead.
The goal just before half time was a real hammer blow and Wicklow still seemed dazed during the start of the second half.
Although McGraynor fired over an early free Longford were in complete control and opened up an 11-point lead by the midway point in the second half as Wicklow looked utterly deflated and defeated.
Wicklow gave themselves a lifeline when Aaron Heffernan finished to the net after some good interplay. This was between two McGraynor points as Wicklow found themselves six down with four minutes of normal time left.
You could sense Longford were somewhat stunned by this mini resurgence and clearly Wicklow needed the next score.
Unfortunately when the opportunity arose they kicked a relatively easy chance wide and Longford seemed to relax with time quickly running out.
The final nail in the coffin was hammered in when Oran Kenny rounded Joe McDonald and finished to an empty net, completing a miserable night for the Garden men. Wicklow will have to pick themselves up quickly as they face Wexford, who lost to Offaly by eight points, Thursday evening in Aughrim.
There are certainly positives to take and many of the Wicklow