Waterford (EA Sports)

[ForzaForth]

Not a huge amount of positives as three late goals for Waterford turned this EA Sports tie into a drubbing at Ferrycarrig tonight. Wexford manager Damian Locke made a number of changes from the XI which started against Shelbourne and began with Corey Chambers, Conor Sutton, Owen McCormack, Sean Eve, Ricky Fox, John McKeown, Duxey Dunne, Adam Hanlon, Liam Donnelly and Craig Hayes up front. The match began fairly slowly as both sides seemed to take a long time to settle. However, Wexford started with a back three which appeared to be more comfortable for the players as it simplified their roles somewhat. On ten minutes, Liam Donnelly got a shot away which Matt Connor in the Waterford goal did well to hold while at full stretch. Waterford had their first decent effort on goal on 15 minutes when McAlavey shot over while coming in from the left wing. On 20 minutes, Waterford found it hard to deal with a Wexford free which was allowed travel a long way into the Waterford penalty area. However, you can't allow runners get past you with a three-man defence, but McDaid was permitted to trap a ball between keeper and last defender which meant that he had a simple tap-in for 1-0 to the Blues. Another Waterford runner got past the Wexford defence again on the half-hour, but his shot on target was blocked by a Wexford defender. Matt Connor then did well to hold cleanly a cross/shot by the lively Ricky Fox, before Kenny Browne, who played like he was sitting in an armchair, picked out McDaid free on the right wing from a Waterford corner and his cross was met by Gary Delaney who had stayed up with a free header and Waterford were ahead on a 2-0 scoreline at the break.

[ForzaForth]

Wexford worked hard in the second half, but could do little to upset the Delaney-Browne axis at the heart of the Waterford defence. On 65 minutes, Danny Doyle, not familiar to me, came on for Wexford and looked lively while giving height and experience away to both Browne and Delaney. Further Wexford subs were Andy O'Connor and Dean George. With 15 minutes to go, McDaid miskicked while in front of goal and Corey Chambers did well to push a good Waterford effort on target away for a corner. Waterford then hit the bar with a shot from the left-winger coming inside Conor Sutton. As Wexford heads visibly dropped, Waterford then had three further attacks in the last five minutes and scored from all three to bring the score to 5-0 at the final whistle. A sense of resignation was palpable among Wexford fans at the end.

Wexford need to get themselves up for the Longford game next Friday. General belief amongst the Wexford fans was that the three at the back worked reasonably well, but the huge problem still facing Damian Locke is the failure to make any impression on opposing defences. Suggestions were that Ricky Fox, who drew a number of fouls from Waterford players, particularly in the first half, could play higher up the pitch to try and get someone to run at the opposing centre halves. Otherwise, I thought Duxey Dunne and Liam Donnelly did well while I would like to see more of Danny Doyle. Maybe, 250 at the match.