Decimated under-19s slip to a defeat in Cork

CORK CITY 3 WEXFORD F.C. 1

AN understrength Wexford slipped to defeat on the road against Cork City in the SSE Airtricity Under-19 Southern Elite League at Bishopstown Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

When things are a struggle it helps to be able to have a full deck to pick from but James Quinn didn’t have that, with four of his squad unavailable and Colum Feeney still in hospital after suffering a severe concussion while on first team duty.

It was therefore no surprise that the first half was a bit of a struggle for the visitors.

They were able to keep the game scoreless in the first quarter but Cork, pushing hard for an all-important top four place, broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute. It was the product of some fine work on the left hand side of the field from Cian Murphy, he slid across to Darragh Crowley on the edge of the box and the City attacker made no mistake with a quality finish.

Ten minutes later the home side doubled their lead when their talented Under-17 starlet Ricardo Dinanga fired home from eighteen yards out.

Five minutes later the same man applied a close range finish to make it 3-0.

After a disappointing first half Wexford had nothing to lose after the break and they had a real good go.

To their credit they were the better team in those 45 minutes and Vinny Quinlan, Adham Masood and Yaw Aboagye all had chances to score.

They did get the consolation goal their hard work deserved and it was an excellent team goal.

Ciaran Murphy crossed the ball into the box from the left and another Under-17, Killian Griffin, tucked it home from just outside the six yard box.

Wexford have just three games left in the league stage of this competition and the end can hardly come soon enough.

They host Waterford on Sunday afternoon and then have a four week break before travelling to Bray and hosting Galway in their final two matches.

CORK CITY: David Harrington; Dylan Scott, Colin O’Mahony, Jack O’Sullivan, Ronan Hurley (capt.), Alec Byrne, Ricardo Dinanga, Joe Meaney, Cian Murphy, Darragh Crowley, Cian Bargary. Subs. - Tomás Collins for Scott (46), James O’Sullivan for Dinanga (46), Dale Holland for Murphy (61), Douwe van Sinderen for Byrne (66), Beineon O’Brien Whitmarsh for Meaney (72), also, Dean Leahy, Conor Bowdren.

WEXFORD: Kelan Gaffney; Adam Feeney, Killian Griffin, Kyle Scallan, Danny Bruce, Craig O’Reilly (capt.), Vincent Quinlan, Adham Masood, Ciaran Murphy, Shane Beary-Cahill, Dylan Wall. Subs. - Yaw Aboagye for Beary-Cahill (66).

REFEREE: Jason Mannix (Cork).