‘Horrendous decision’ stops Wicklow momentum
HAVING fallen off the horse, Trevor O’Brien is keen to ensure that the Oscar Traynor county squad leap straight back on it.
A mix of unfamiliarity, mistakes and contentious officiating all lead to Wicklow’s downfall in Kilkenny as the Garden County lost 6-2.
They had been 4-0 down before a Shane Doyle brace threatened a comeback but a double whammy of a red card for Callum Pursey twinned with a Kilkenny penalty knocked the stuffing out of Wicklow.
‘We asked lads that hadn’t played together to play in a system that they’d never played in and unfortunately; individual errors cost us and that was to be expected.
‘I don’t blame any of the players for that. Kilkenny have been together for so long and we only literally last Wednesday had the full complement of 30 players training. It’s been tough to get people to train on Monday nights but I’m not trying to put it down to that.
‘We conceded two sloppy goals and within a minute of the second half, we’d conceded a third.
‘We conceded the fourth and got it back to 4-2 but - and people will always try to blame the referee - but it was an absolutely horrendous decision. The goalkeeper went up with two hands and caught the ball and their striker hit him, the ball fell and their other striker hit it and Callum Pursey’s natural reaction was to handball it. After that, you’re climbing a mountain.
‘Considering they were runners-up last year, there’s not many teams that are going to go to Kilkenny and score two goals. We gave a good account of ourselves and there’s a few lads in that squad that have played themselves into the starting XI for the next game.’
That next game will come thick and fast as Wexford visit the Bridgewater Centre Park in the coming weeks. It is the perfect opportunity for Jamie Kelly and co. to put the weekend’s disappointment behind them and O’Brien is backing his troops to do so.
‘Wexford are a serious outfit - as are the AUL - but we are very confident. With the squad that we can put together and the players that we have at our disposal...there’s not many defences that can handle our attack. Our midfield is very strong and our defence can be very strong. Wexford are very accomplished and very tidy and they’ve been together a while but home advantage will help. I think we’ll have the upper hand slightly but we’ll be the underdogs. I’m looking forward to it. We have our toughest test out of the way and we didn’t win but we were hard done by for a few decisions.’