Wexford 1-24 Westmeath 0-15:WEXFORD STAGED one of their best displays for some time as they destroyed Westmeath with a clinical display of football in this one-sided match at Wexford Park on Saturday evening.
Attacker Ciarán Lyng broke Westmeath’s hearts with a superb display of finishing completing the game with the remarkable tally of 0-10, seven from play, and along with his attacking colleagues Ben Brosnan (0-7, two play) and Red Barry (1-3 from play), they gave the Westmeath defence a nightmare evening.
That trio apart, this was a superb team display from the Model County who took the lead into the breeze inside 30 seconds after the start, when Red Barry cut through the defence, wrong-footed two defenders and sidefooted the ball into the net sending goalkeeper Gary Connaughton the wrong way.
It was a lead Wexford were never subsequently to lose, for despite the scoring exploits of inside forwards Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon, Westmeath were never able to mount a winning challenge.
Having scored an astonishing 3-40 in their two championship games Wexford have set their stall out. “It’s good shooting, alright,” said Barry, whose early goal rocked the midlanders. “We have worked hard on it and it is nice when we had a championship game in Wexford Park that we could shoot like that for them.
“It’s the first time we’ve played in front of more than 17,000 in Wexford Park. It was great to be be able to deliver such a quality football display and send out a football message in the county. The celebrations will be put on hold. It’s back to training this week in preparation for the semi-final. That’s something to look forward to.”
Wexford picked up where they left off in Tullamore against Offaly leaving Manager Jason Ryan elated with the performance.
“To go out and play attacking style football, some days it works out. The best football we play is when attacking but a game does not always pan out like that. To play that style of football one needs possession. We had that type of possession today.
“Our focus was in from the start. Playing into the wind in the first half we had to focus from the very start but more importantly we kept that focus through the second half when the tempo of the game, dropped and dropped.
“We have a squad of 34 players some of whom have not kicked a ball in league or championship, but this is all down to a squad effort. We have won nothing. This week we’ll focus on the semi-final whether it’s Louth or Carlow.”
Westmeath Manager Pat Flanagan said: “We’ve no excuses. On the day we were simply beaten by a better side. We never really recovered from the concession of that early goal. We’ll just have to regroup for the qualifiers.”
Wexford took the lead within 30 seconds with Barry’s dramatic early strike after he collected a long, accurate delivery from wing-back Aindreas Doyle.
With the inside forward duo of Barry and Lyng causing Westmeath problems, with Lyng notching his first point of the game curling over a lovely left-footed effort having created ample space, and suddenly the tone of the game had been set.
Westmeath had to wait until the seventh minute for their opening score, a Dessie Dolan point.
As the game progressed it became clear the main Westmeath scoring threat was to emerge through Dolan and full-forward Glennon.
By the 17th minute, Westmeath had got within one point of Wexford, 1-4 to 0-6, with all of their six points coming through Dolan (4), and two from Glennon, with the corner-forward giving Joey Wadding a nightmare start, and who fared little better when switched on to Glennon.
But with Lyng, Barry and Ben Brosnan continuing to sparkle in attack, kicking over some delightful points, Wexford looked comfortable when they had a six-point cushion, 1-12 to 0-9, at the interval, turning around with the breeze behind them.
Wexford continued to control and sweep up possession through the second half as Rory Quinlivan and Daithí Waters remained dominant in midfield, when the AFL-bound John Heslin was introduced for the second half but failed to make an impact, as the home side’s duo, backed up by a superb David Murphy, Brian Malone and Graeme Molloy in defence, completely snuffed out any hope of a Westmeath revival.
Westmeath were clearly rattled been unable to bring any composure to their game as Wexford continued to chip away at them.
By the 55th minute Wexford had stormed 1-21 to 0-10 clear, as they continued to stretch their lead through Eric Bradley, Brosnan, Lyng and Barry, with Westmeath’s solitary second-half score up to then coming from a 38th-minute Dolan pointed free.
Although the midlanders responded with three unanswered points through, Dolan (two, one free), and a Paul Graveille free, between the 64th and 68th minutes, it was Wexford who finished with a couple of splendid attacking moves leading to points from Quinlivan and Brosnan to round off a great all-round team display.
WEXFORD: A Masterson; J Wadding, G Molloy, B Malone; A Flynn (0-1), D Murphy, A Doyle; R Quinlivan (0-1), D Waters; S Roche (0-1), C Lyng (0-10, three frees), B Brosnan (0-7, five frees); C Morris, E Bradley (0-1), R Barry (1-3). Subs: N Murphy (Bannow/Ballymitty) for Wadding (47 mins), A Morrissey for Flynn (56 mins), B Doyle for Bradley (60 mins), P Byrne for Roche (60 mins), L Óg McGovern for Lyng (64 mins). Yellow Card: D Murphy (29).
WESTMEATH: G Connaughton; F Boyle, K Gavin, A Finnan (0-1); G Egan, K Martin, D Harte; D Daly, D Corroon; P Sharry, David Glennon, C Lynam; P Greville (0-2, frees), Denis Glennon (0-4), D Dolan (0-7, 0-2, frees). Subs: J Dolan for Boyle (26 mins), J Heslin (0-1) for Sharry (35 mins), J Gaffey for Gavin (38 mins), B Murtagh for Corroon (56 mins), M Curley for David Glennon (61 mins). Yellow cards: Egan (25 mins), Gavin (28 mins).
Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).
