Danny’s double does it for Rosslare Rangers
A GOAL in each half from Danny Ennis earned Rosslare Rangers’ second string the Billy Browne Cup in a sun-drenched Ferrycarrig Park on Sunday.
The Rosslare men were full value for their victory, always looking a threat going forward, while they were also defensively sound, restricting the Wexford town outfit to few chances.
It has been a bitterly disappointing end to the season for Wexford Albion, having been pipped by Raheen to the Division 3A title the previous weekend, and they also lost out in last year’s Billy Browne Cup final, when they were beaten by Cushinstown.
Ennis opened the scoring with a sweet strike in the 34th minute, and he doubled Rosslare Rangers’ advantage with a deft header eleven minutes after the turnaround. The result never looked in doubt thereafter.
Albion did threaten early on and in the third minute Jason Leniston played the ball through to Kyle Mann, and although the attacker got a touch ahead of goalkeeper Josh Burke, the netminder, who was assured throughout, recovered well to gather possession.
Albion were showing plenty of neat touches in the early stages, without managing to carve open the Rangers defence, and the south county men came within inches of making the breakthrough with ten minutes on the clock.
Dillon Parle stood over a free 25 yards out but his rasping effort struck the crossbar and bounced away to safety.
Rosslare Rangers caused more concern to the Albion defence in the 18th minute, with Dan Halligan and Michael Honey both seeing shots blocked during a game of pinball in the penalty area.
At the other end Albion’s Sam O’Neill went on a menacing run, but after skipping past a couple of players his shot was straight at Burke in the Rosslare goal, while in the 30th minute Jason Leniston got on the end of an O’Neill cross but blazed his effort off target.
Rangers made the breakthrough with 33 minutes on the clock when the ball fell to man of the match Danny Ennis, and he curled in a superb shot from the edge of the area.
The Rosslare outfit continued to press after the interval, and Dillon Parle shot straight at goalkeeper Richie O’Reilly five minutes after the change of ends.
Albion’s Jason Leniston then twice tried his luck, first dragging an effort wide of the left post before another attempt was comfortably gathered by Burke.
Rosslare Rangers firmly stamped their authority on the contest in the 57th minute when Ennis stooped to get on the end of an Emmet Byrne cross from the right and glanced a beautiful header past O’Reilly.
Wexford Albion suffered a further blow five minutes later when Kyle Mann was dismissed by referee Eric Molloy for a second bookable offence, and although they tried manfully to find a way back into the game for the final half an hour, a resolute Rosslare Rangers rearguard held firm.
ROSSLARE RANGERS ‘B’: Josh Burke, Michael Honey, Emmet Byrne, Conor Cafferkey (capt.), Darren Morris, Rees Broaders, Richard Bent, Fintan Wickham, Danny Ennis, Daniel Halligan, Dillon Parle. Subs. - Liam Flood for Wickham (56), Jason Ellard for Halligan (70), Chris Brennan for Parle (76), Alan Hyland for Ennis (87), also Andy Cummins, Sammy Delaney, Jordan Rea.
WEXFORD ALBION: Richie O’Reilly, Sam O’Neill, Ryan Furlong, Jason Daly, Ben Butler, Donal O’Leary, Paul Dempsey, Eddie Pitman, Jamie Thomas, Kyle Mann, Jason Leniston. Subs. - Luke O’Neill for Thomas (34), Pierce Dooley for Dempsey (59), Liam O’Connor for O’Leary (76), Elliot Malone for Leniston (83), also Shane Hall.
REFEREE: Eric Molloy. Assistant
referees: Peter Rowlands and Marc Kelly. Fourth official: John Diskin.