IDEAL OPPORTUNITY

Hegarty looks forward to Louth test

WEXFORD MANAGER John Hegarty is relishing the prospect of pitting his wits against higher-ranked opposition after watching his side tear Carlow to shreds in a one-sided Leinster Senior football championship first round clash on Sunday.

The 4-19 to 0-8 victory in Chadwicks Wexford Park earned the Slaneysiders a crack at last year’s beaten provincial finalists Louth in Portlaoise next weekend, and they will certainly go into that quarter-final tie on a high after racking up their fifth comfortable win in succession.

Having unluckily missed out on promotion from the basement division, Wexford certainly aren’t licking their wounds and another good championship showing against the Wee County on Sunday would be further proof that they are more than capable of mixing it with teams higher up the league ladder.

“There’s no point in talking about wanting to progress and move up the divisions and then shy away from a challenge like this. We’re very much looking forward to it,” Hegarty said.

“We have a relatively clean bill of health. There’s knocks and bangs and bruises that you’re going to get every day, but nothing serious and no additional injuries.

“We have lads pushing on and pushing strong for starting positions. We’ll definitely have a good cut at it.”

Having plied their trade in the second tier for the past two seasons, following their Division 3 triumph in 2022, Ger Brennan’s side will certainly be on another level to anything Wexford have faced so far this term, but, with confidence soaring in the camp, they’ll be determined to make their mark.

“This group is ambitious; they are clearly improving. This will be a good gauge of where they stand, taking on a really good Division 2 team who, after Dublin, are probably the best team in Leinster.

“It’s an ideal opportunity to test ourselves and see what progress we’re making. We’re still definitely the underdogs but lots of underdogs won around the country today. We won’t be going in with anything other than a real determination to have a good go at it,” the manager said.

While Wexford have been putting teams to the sword on their impressive five-game winning run, Hegarty is well aware that scores will be more hard-earned against Louth, and completely throwing off the shackles in an attacking sense would be a foolhardy approach.

“We’ve been putting up big scores, but all of those scores have come against Division 4 teams and that won’t be the case next week.

“What we’ve tried to do from the word go is encourage lads to look forward and go after it, but you do have to bear in mind that the opposition the next day will be a lot stronger than anything we’ve faced this year. It’s a step up in class, so we’ll be under no illusions,” he said.

Lining out again just seven days after their Leinster championship opener is far from ideal, particularly when you consider that their opponents will have had a three-week break, but Hegarty says they’ll just have to roll up their sleeves and get on with it.

“That’s one of the anomalies. When you’re trying to plan to take on a team that are two divisions above you, you’d like that bit of time to focus on them.

“The Wexford footballers are not in a position that they can take anyone for granted, so our focus was entirely on Carlow until today.

“It’s only now that we get to look at Louth, whereas Louth have been able to have a break after playing Kildare in the last league game and build up for next Sunday’s game.

“That’s one thing that is in their favour, but we won’t be looking for excuses. We’ll be going to have a really good shot at it,” he said.

Reflecting on the crushing 23-point defeat of Carlow, the manager was delighted with the swashbuckling display of his side, which was even more praiseworthy given the elements.

“With the weather conditions you couldn’t have foreseen that kind of performance. It was really tough conditions out on the pitch, so it was all the more remarkable for that.

“Carlow had clearly come down with a plan of containment and they did that well for maybe 15 minutes. It did take us a while to get to grips with it even though we had a gale-force wind with us. You have to be happy with how the lads responded when they got on top.

“The groundwork was done in the first-half, because if you don’t go in with a lead Carlow can afford to be defensive. After half-time they had to come out and that leaves a couple of gaps at the back to exploit,” he said.

Hegarty was particularly pleased that his side had their shooting boots on, only registering one wide while racking up a massive tally, and he admits it is something they have been working on.

“Our conversion rate is something we’ve been frustrated with. We were creating a huge amount of chances, but not taking enough of them.

“We always said that the day we do start to convert we’ll put up a big score and it’s great to do it on a championship day.

“Even from a goals perspective, we’ve been creating goal chances but not taking them. We took four today, so you’d have to be happy with that,” he said.