Carlow League 18’s 1-4 Wexford League 18’s  

A good start to the Inter League Youths campaign against a well fancied Carlow side. Not surprisingly, the squad is dominated by the Wexford Youths players, even if 4 of them, who’ve been in the senior League of Ireland squad in the last month were missing - Jimmy Keohane, Michael Byrne, Gareth Wallace and Muzzi Mullen. It was good that we were able to incorporate three non Youths players in the starting line up, Lee Chin and Dermot Flood of Wexford Bohs and Stephen Kinsella of Gorey Rangers, and two more as subs, Jimmy O’Leary of Moyne Rangers and Jamie Howard of Gorey. All did well.

Carlow opened the scoring after just 4 minutes with a powerful header from a corner kick. But the Wexford players were not flustered and soon were back on level terms, as some Kevin Rowe magic set up Robert Vickers to score. It wasn’t long before they were in front – Robert Dempsey taken down for a penalty which Eoin O’Shea converted. The visitors were in full flow and the third goal wasn’t long coming. Robert Vickers, running riot on the right flank, set up Stephen Kinsella for a professional finish. Kinsella was captain on the day and was a powerhouse in the middle of the park.

3-1 at the interval. Carlow had been set a daunting task. This is a good Carlow team, many of them with Under 20 experience and I would still expect them to come out of the group. There is no shame in losing to this squad of players. Any hope of a home side comeback was put to rest by Kevin Rowe when he raced clear of their defence to score the fourth. Rowe is a serious talent - does the Fethard man want it enough to become the next Kevin Doyle?

A good start, a good performance, but there’s plenty of room for improvement, especially when we don’t have the ball. It will be important for the non Wexford Youths players to play a full role in training if we’re going to build a side capable of winning an All Ireland. It is such a difficult competition to win. Best on the day for Wexford Youths were Shane Sinnott, Martin Kehoe, Robert Vickers, Stephen Kinsella and Kevin Rowe. Local referee Jim Wynn did well on the day.

The full squad was as follows:

Stephen Kinsella            
Jamie Howard
Gary Murphy                      Gorey Rangers
Lee Chin
Dermot Flood                    Wexford Bohs
Jimmy O’Leary
Tom Collins                        Moyne Rangers
Sean Allen
Shane Goff
Martin Kehoe
Shane Sinnott
Eoin O’Shea
Robert Vickers
Keith Breen
Adam Beary
Sam Doran
Dara McDonald
Robert Dempsey
Kevin Rowe                        Wexford Youths                                                              

Midweek training for all at 7.30pm on Wednesday at Ferrycarrig Park.

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