No joy on the road for Wicklow’s Oscar Traynor
Wexford at home offer’s big chance for O’Brien’s men
WICKLOW’S Oscar Traynor team suffered a heavy 6-2 defeat in their opening joust of the Oscar Traynor Trophy competition away to Kilkenny last weekend.
It’s been several years since a Wicklow side has enetered the competition that they last won in 1986.
The team are under the managership of Trevor O’Brien and Declan Carthy this year and were hoping for a better start than the one they got in Kilkenny.
The game started at a very quick nervy pace with both teams playing long balls. Kilkenny got the first bit of luck with a sweeping pass down the near side from Paddy Camic to Declan McQuinlan and Camic received the ball back and crossed into to the box where Mark Slater got ahead of the Wicklow defender and poked the ball around the outcoming the Wicklow keeper Eoin Fox, hitting the back of the net.
First blood to Kilkenny on 10 minutes. On 20 minutes Kilkenny got their second goal; a lovely pass through the midfield from Andy Kavanagh to Mark Slater just outside the box and he turned and went around the defender and shot .
Fox got his hand on to the ball but it hit the post and went in, 2-0 to Kilkenny.
To their credit, Wicklow battled hard with Danny Byrne and Shane Doyle covering a lot of ground.
Trevor O’Brien’s side never looked out of place, but Fox in the Wicklow goal was the busier of the two keepers.
The final chance of the half also fell to Kilkenny who got a free kick outside the box.
McQuillan took it and Slater got his third of the game with a header to the Wicklow net.
At the start of the second half Wicklow made a change bringing on Tony Harris for David O’Neill, but within three minutes Kilkenny had number four.
The Wicklow defenders got caught passing the ball between themselves just outside the box and Peter Higgins got in between the two Wicklow defenders and took a shot for his first goal of the game.
Wicklow rallied after this. Captain Jamie Kelly, Danny Byrne, Shane Doyle and substitute Tony Harris, stepped up a gear and on 55 minutes a cross from the right by the captain Kelly saw Shane Doyle got his head on to make it 4-1.
In the 65th minute, Danny Byrne got the ball in the centre of mid field and went around three Kilkenny defenders and was fouled just outside the box and won a free kick on the right-hand side.
The Ashford Rovers man got up and took it himself and found Shane Byrne again to make it 4-2.
On 68 minutes, a cross came into the Wicklow box and Fox caught it and ended up on the ground. Remarkably, a Kilkenny player kicked the ball out of the goalkeeper’s hands and took a shot on goal where Callum Pursey was deemed to have handled it on the line and was shown a red card, and this when Wicklow had been expecting a free out.
Mark Slater took the penalty and scored his fourth goal of the day, and Kilkenny’s fifth.
The sixth Kilkenny goal came on 77 minutes from a mistake from Fox (who had been in outstanding form all game). He kicked out a back pass and it deflected off the incoming Kilkenny player Henry O’Neill into the back of the net.
Although the score line at the end read 6-2, it was a closer game and Wicklow deserved more of it.
But Kilkenny were last year’s runners up and their experience and killer instinct showed.
On another front, a grandson of the Wicklow League royalty Tommy Earls was playing on the Kilkenny team at number four.
A lot of positives for Wicklow. Next up are home fixtures to Wexford and Athletic Union League (AUL) before the end of the month.
Wicklow league: 1. Eoin fox (St Peters), 2. Brandon Feeley (Newtown United), 3. Justin House (Carnew), 4. Glen Carthy (Newtown United), 5. Tony Harris (St Peters), 6. Jamie Kelly (St Peters) Capt., 7. Martin Williams (Newtown United), 8. Callum Pursey (Avonmore),
9. Shane Doyle (Newtown United), 10. Danny Byrne (Ashford Rovers), 11. Shane Roche (Arklow United), 12. Chad Ryan (St Peters), 13. Shane Connolly (Arklow United), 14. Jamie Byrne (Ashford Rovers), 15. Will O’Neill (Carnew),
16. Cathal Moody (Ashford Rovers), 17. David O’Neill (Arklow United), 18. Cillian Gilligan (Carnew). Subs: David O’Neill for Tony Harris (Half time); Shane Roche for Will O’Neill (62 mins); Chad Ryan for Martin Williams (67 mins).
Kilkenny League: 1. Owen Wall,
2. Ger Hames, 3. Eddie Nugent, 4. Tommy Earls, 5. Eoin McCormack, 6. Declan McQuinlan, 7. Paddy Camic, 8. Peter Higgins, 9. Mark Slater, 10. Dean Broaders, 11. Andy Kavanagh, 12. Henry O’Neill, 13. Dylan Dunphy, 14. Andrew Wall, 15. Robbie Quan.
Referee: Nick Marnel