Wexford FC v Kerry

[ForzaForth]

With two away league games still to come, Wexford will be happy to have secured a play-off spot with a dominating second-half performance against Kerry in Ferrycarrig tonight, with the away side’s cause not helped by the departure through injury of key defender, Ethan Kos, at the break. Wexford made two changes from the side which unluckily lost to Drogheda in the FAI Cup semi-final and started with Conor, Darragh, Ethan, Divin, Kian, Thomas, Dobbsy, Luka, James, Lewis and Sean. Wexford were generally on top for much of the first half but without really threatening Tuta in the Kerry goal. Kerry also posed a threat mainly through the very useful Nathan Gleeson but Wexford’s Lewis Temple did a good marking job on the Kerry centre-forward. Wexford applied a lot of pressure during the opening half but never really asked Tuta to earn his corn. Best chances of the half both fell to Wexford’s James Crawford, who had a free deflected just past the Kerry post for a corner on 35 minutes and then struck a left-footed volley wide of the Kerry post. In between the two Crawford chances, Kerry appealed for a peno but it looked like a clean, albeit slightly acrobatic, tackle by the Wexford defender and nothing was given. 0-0 at halftime.

[ForzaForth]

Wexford upped the tempo in the second period and had two lengthy sieges of the Kerry goal early on but Tuta was able to match everything thrown at him including a brave grab of the ball right on the Kerry goal-line with Wexford's Aaron Dobbs trying to finish. On 15 minutes, however, Wexford won a corner and a good run to the near post by Ethan Boyle enabled him to head home to finally permit Wexford to break the deadlock. 1-0 to Wexford. It was soon 2-0 when another Wexford set-piece allowed Sean McHale to finish from close in. Cian Curtis and Kaylem Harnett were introduced at this point by Wexford and later Ben Lynch, Conor Crowley and Adam Lennon. After Dobbsy had a shot blocked by Tuta with his legs, Divin Isamala made it 3-0 with a backheader into the Kerry goal from another Wexford cross. Good movement by Wexford’s Cian Curtis inside the Kerry area enabled him to finish neatly for Wexford for a 4-0 final scoreline. Best for Wexford were probably the midfield trio of Ethan Boyle, Kian Corbally and Luka Lovic. Crowd was reported to be 566.