Cobh U-19s in command
WEXFORD F.C. COBH RAMBLERS
A DISAPPOINTING weekend overall for Wexford F.C. came to a close as Cobh Ramblers ran out fourgoal winners over their hosts in the SSE Airtricity Under-19 Southern Elite Division in Ferrycarrig Park on Sunday.
After the first team’s trip to Donegal went unrewarded and the Under-15s fell to a late goal in the R.S.C., some may have looked to the Under-19s to raise spirits in Ferrycarrig, but what followed certainly failed to achieve that aim.
There are only a few positives which Wexford can take from this rout. One is definitely the exceptional performance of Colum Feeney - a young man likely to see a lot of time in between the first team posts this season. He certainly kept the score down and the result respectable.
The other is possibly that 15-year-old Killian Griffin could compete with players almost four years older than him as he was thrown into the deep end on his Wexford debut.
Few could argue that Cobh deserved their win, and they dominated from the off as Beineon O’Brien-Whitmarsh and Nathan Broderick both went close.
The main source of Cobh’s firsthalf threat, however, appeared to come from the right-hand side. More specifically their full-back, Kjavs Vitkevicus, roamed forward and was allowed the time and space to deliver crosses into the box.
Wexford were warned of this threat in the 25th minute, when Matthew Lamb was emphatically denied by Feeney.
Yet, they failed to heed the danger and ten minutes later when Vitkevicus delivered again, Broderick made no mistake with his powerful header.
Cobh flooded forward after the opener and, despite Gordon Walker heading onto the post before half-time, the one-goal margin remained.
In theory, it could have been a different game had Ciarán Murphy’s effort soon after the re-start not cannoned back off the post on a rare entry into Cobh’s penalty area. This was Wexford’s only real ‘spell’ in the game and it didn’t produce much else.
Eoin Murphy’s introduction for O’Brien-Whitmarsh just before the hour mark gave Wexford a different problem, and by the 71st minute Murphy had scored.
Picking up on sloppy Wexford play, he smashed into the top left corner.
The third and fourth both came before the 80th minute. Stephen O’Leary headed in Ryan O’Regan’s corner before Murphy proved to be very unselfish - squaring for O’Leary’s second in a matter of minutes to complete the four-goal win.
Wexford will face a trip away to Shamrock Rovers next as they hope to put their first points on the board.
Wexford F.C.: Colum Feeney; Killian Griffin, Jack White, Cian Larkin (capt.), Jack Bates; Mick Gardiner, Mikey Carroll, Craig O’Reilly, Ciarán Murphy, Vinny Quinlan; Danny Doyle. Subs. - Ciarán Paige for Murphy (62), Shane Cahill for O’Reilly (66), Coran Lindsay for Bates (76), Liam Berry for Doyle (81), Yaw Aboagye for Gardiner (85), also Kealan Gaffney, Peter Collins.
Cobh Ramblers: Conor Hogan; Kjavs Vitkevicus, Gordon Walker (capt.), Greg Barrett, Ryan O’Regan; Matthew Lamb, Peter Callanan, Nathan Broderick, Jaze Kabia, Stephen O’Leary; Benion O’Brien-Whitmarsh. Subs. - Eoin Murphy for O’Brien (56), Cameron Harlson for Kabia (70), Darragh Lowth for O’Leary (81), also Arthur Nganou, Adam Crowley, Kyle Murphy, Seán O’Driscoll.
Referee: Brian Fenlon (Wexford).