Longford

[ForzaForth]

Comfortable enough win for the away side in Ferrycarrig tonight although with only one goal in it, there was always the chance that the Youths might nick a point with a goal. With Jimmy and Shane Nolan suspended, Wexford started with Graham, Peter, Killian, Lasty, Ryan Delaney making his debut I think, a midfield five of Skelly, Shane, Ben, Rocks and Eric and with Danny up front. First decent chance fell to Longford after eight minutes, when O'Sullivan scooped the ball over the bar when it was allowed reach him by the Youth's defence. A minute later, a rare Wexford breakway saw Eric taken down by Bennion inside the Longford area with a yellow for the Longford keeper. Danny's spot-kick was saved, however, by Bennion diving to his left and Wexford couldn't convert either of two resulting rebounds. Just before the quarter-hour, Rhys Gorman lined one up for Longford about 25 yards out and beat Graham in the top-left corner to put Longford one up. Wexford, however, were able to threaten in the air against a smallish Longford defence and, a minute later, Lasty had a header from a free pushed away by Bennion.

Remainder of the half had relatively few chances with Longford's neat passing dominating possession but Wexford looking the quicker round the pitch but then giving the ball away too easily. During this time, Skelly picked up a yellow for a tackle and Cowan a yellow for a dive. 1-0 to Longford at half-time.

[ForzaForth]

Second half was more of the same with Longford looking the more likely to score but Youths still in the match on the scoreboard at least. After three, Peter Higgins picked up a yellow for a tackle. On five, Graham was surprised by a shot which bounced up but managed to knock it away for a corner. On ten, Rice also got a yellow for Longford. Midway through the half, Shane Dunne also got a yellow for the Youths and Gary Shaw came on as a sub for Longford. With fifteen minutes to go, Graham did really well to push a far-post header over the bar for a corner and seven minutes later, came out quickly to win the ball against O'Sullivan as he looked likely to score. Other than a shot on target from Ben Ryan, the only other Wexford half-chance came late on when two Wexford players both failed to connect with a long throw before it trickled into Bennion's hands for Longford. Late Wexford subs were Daryl Power and Deano Broaders while Hynesy also came on late for Longford.

[ForzaForth]

Best for Wexford were Peter Higgins who was very impressive at right back while Lasty and Killian were pretty solid in the middle of the back four while Eric and Rocks worked hard. Shane Keegan still has some work to do to construct an effective pattern of play for the Youths particularly going forward. 1-0 to Longford at full-time with a disappointing crowd of about 120 although it was close to arctic on the night.