Wexford FC v Kerry

[ForzaForth]

Wexford secured a deserved three points in Ferrycarrig this evening and also recorded what may be their first clean-sheet of this year’s league campaign. Wexford started with Owen, Darragh, Ben, Cian, Ethan, Mikie, Kian, Thomas, Mark, Sean and Reece. Wexford started reasonably well and forced a couple of early corners one of which ended up in a Wexford chance which was cleared by a Kerry defender almost from his own goal-line. Darragh Levingston then had a shot which went wide of the Kerry post before, on ten minutes, the useful Ryan Kelliher for Kerry had a header which went straight into the arms of Owen Mason in the Wexford goal. On 23 minutes, Wexford went ahead when Ethan Boyle created a tidy looped pass which put Mikie Rowe in the clear and his apparent no-look square pass left Thomas Oluwa with an easy tap-in for 1-0 to Wexford. In an almost unostentatious manner, Mikie impresses as a very clever player. On 28 minutes, a Kerry forward blocked an attempted clearance by Owen Mason, but the latter did well to then block away the effort on goal for a Kerry corner. On 31 minutes, Kerry won another corner, but this time Wexford were able to break upfield with the ball and it eventually fell to Mark Hanratty who drilled a low shot from outside the area into the bottom left corner of Kerry's goal for 2-0 to Wexford. 2-0 to Wexford at halftime.

[ForzaForth]

Kerry seemed to decide to get the ball down and play in the second half and, coupled with Wexford perhaps conceding a lot of space, Kerry posed a bigger threat at the start of the second half. However, Tuta in the Kerry goal was then forced to make a good save from Mikie Rowe and the rebound was pushed just the wrong side of the Kerry post by Thomas Oluwa. Wexford soon brought on Aaron Dobbs and Luka Lovic and later Carl Lennox, Brandon McCann and Cian Curtis. The Wexford defence played well to keep probably Kerry’s best line – their forwards – at bay with Ben Lynch, Sean McHale and Cian O’Malley doing particularly well. Two decent Kerry efforts – one a shot a yard wide and a Kerry free which was cleared for a corner – then ended the game with Wexford home on the basis of a 2-0 scoreline. Crowd was reported to be 402, I believe.