Cobh Ramblers

Decent effort from the Youths in Ferrycarrig tonight as they overcame a tricky opposition in Cobh Ramblers, but they didn't match their superiority on the scoreboard and nearly fell to a sucker punch right at the end. Youths made one changefrom last week with Craig Wall starting and went Graham,Craig McC, Lee, Gary, Jimmy, Speedy, Craig W., Peter, Andy, and with Rocks and Danny up front. Pitch was nice and zippy from the start but got progressively wetter as the game went on. Cobh quickly conceded space and left Creamer as a sole forward up front. Youths started well but without testing Browne in the Cobh goal. Then, on 9 minutes, Graham had to be sharp to win a 50-50 tackle with a Cobh player who tried to latch onto a through ball. On 14 minutes, Danny went down inside the Cobh box after minimal contact and needed treatment and mightn't have been running the best from then on. With 19 minutes gone, Peter Higgins got a yellow for a tackle. Within the space of a few minutes, Danny had three efforts, but the lack of space meant that two of them were blocked by Cobh defenders. Then, just after the half-hour, Youths won a free which Rocks got his head to inside the Cobh box. It fell to Danny who touched it off to Gary Delaney who struck it low left from about 12 yards out to put Wexford ahead. Remainder of the first period was fairly quiet to leave the Youths justifiably ahead at 1-0 at the break.

Second half mainly consisted of further pressure by the Youths, but they couldn't get the ball over the chalky line. On ten minutes, a hard-working Craig Wall had a run and a shot, but Browne in the Cobh goal got down to save. On 15 minutes, Cobh's McCarthy got a yellow for a tackle. Craig McCabe then got a yellow for another tackle and was soon after replaced by Eric Molloy with Speedy moving to right-back. On 65 minutes, Rocks set up Danny inside the Cobh box, but his volley was tipped over by Browne. From that corner, Eric hit the post with another volley and the ball fell to Danny but he couldn't get a clean strike and Browne was able to gather. Cobh then picked up another yellow and as the match headed towards the 90 minute mark, Cobh had their chance to equalise when a good cross came in from Kenny on Cobh's right. Graham had to react quickly to punch it away one-handed but it fell to a Cobh attacker about 14 yards out. His first-time strike could only hit the last Wexford defender with Graham effectively out of position and Cobh's chance was gone. Five minutes injury time were played but this only led to another chance for Craig Wall who couldn't keep it on target.

Match then finished on 1-0 scoreline to the Youths. Youths were strong all over the pitch with perhaps Gary Delaney and Lee Grace being the pick of the bunch at the back. For Cobh, they looked strongest out wide with Goldsmith and Kenny impressing. About 300 at the match.