Wexford Youths 1-2 Shelbourne FC

Courtesy of Extratime.ie

by Conor Meagher

Friday night’s encounter between Wexford and Shels saw the game swing in the second half as the away side caught the home defence napping with two quick, well orchestrated goals inside two minutes through Paddy Madden and Tony Flood after going behind in the first half to a Gavin Doyle goal mid way through he half. The win sees Shelbourne pull six points away from the Slaneysiders with a game in hand and six goals to the good in goal difference at this early stage of the season.

The home side looked to have taken the lead as early as the fourth minute when Conor Sinnott sprinted onto a Liam O’Loughlin pass to beat Kevin Doherty and cross for Gavin Doyle to tap in unmarked at the back post – the Youths Striker was ruled marginally offside despite the manic celebrations of the Warrior supporters. Shels first chance came through good interplay between Madden and Quigley, the former knocking down a routine long ball for the latter to strike at Holden without conviction. Barring some target practice from distance from Baker and Fitzgerald and a Breen snap shot from a Sinnott corner, neither keeper was really made to work until the 32nd minute when The Youths took the lead.

Johnny Flynn O’Connor worked some space down the left in his own half and fed Fitzgerald whose run beat Brennan only for the defender to intercept his by-line cross out for a corner – Sinnott swung the result in from the left and White flicked it on for Gavin Doyle to score his eight goal of the season in all tapping in. The reds almost saw an equaliser after 39 minutes when Quigley ran onto a bouncing ball, controlled and struck from distance only to see White get across to block his shot out for a corner which was then cleared.

The second half saw Peter Hynes come on for Hedderman as Shels looked to change their positioning. The change had little impact much like any of the two teams players barring Conor Sinnotts high effort from distance and a controlled volley from Liam O’Loughlin straight at Delaney early in the first half up until the 72nd minute when Crawley’s deep cross from the left was knocked down by Flood to the on loan from Bohs Madden to bury from six yards as the home defence froze – the fact that the same three players combined within two minutes to see Madden turn provider in almost identical circumstances for Flood to finish came as a killer blow for the Youths, both goals stemming from Crawley crosses from the left.

Despite McAllister seeing red for a second yellow with 11 minutes to go for chopping down O’Loughlin, the home side failed to make any head way and were undone by the experience of the Reds team who saw out the remainder of the game with little mistake. Garret McCurtain’s run onto a Gavin Doyle header however saw him get ahead of the keeper only to fall to ground under little contact when pushed wide, which earned him a yellow card for diving and was the last significant action of the game. The Youths will now have to take stock with a tricky away trip to Waterford next Saturday next in the League.

Wexford Team: 20 Packie Holden; 27 Johnny Flynn O’Connor, 28 Anto Russell, 29 Peter White, 30 David Breen,, 32 Liam O’Loughlin; 31 Conor Sinnott (Capt), 34 David Miller (Dempsey, 85min), 35 Patsey Malone (yellow, 78min); 36 Gavin Doyle, 37 Ritchie Fitzgerald (McCurtain, 60min (yellow, 91,min).

Subs: 38 Martin Kehoe, 39 Garrett Wallace, 41 Garret McCurtain, 42 Shane Dempsey, 43 Paul Rossiter.

Shelbourne Team: 1 Dean Delaney; 2 Damien Brennan (Capt), 3 David Crawley, 4 Robbie Hedderman (Hynes, 45min), 5 Kevin Doherty; 6 Mark O’Brien, 7 David McCallister (Yellow, 2min, yellow 79min, Red), 8 Stephen Quigley (McGill, 69min), 11 Ritchie Baker; 9 Paddy Madden, 10 Anthony Flood.

Subs: 12 Peter Hynes, 14 David McGill, 17 Jordan McMillan, 18 Keith Murray, 20 Vinny Whelan.

Ref: Rob Rogers.

Attendance: 711.

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Johnny Flynn O’Connor, kept his side of the pitch free all evening and found space to dig out when under pressure – combines excellently with Miller and O’Loughlin and is progressing with each game.

Return to news