Wexford FC v Shamrock Rovers

Reasonably decent workout in Roadstone this afternoon but ruined on the scoreboard by two nonsense penalty awards to Rovers with the award of a further penalty to Wexford not much better, although it wasn’t converted by the away side. Wexford started with Alex, Kaylem, Carl Lennox, a triallist, Ethan, Kian, Luka, Mikie, Thomas, Mark and James. Wexford had a decent chance in the first minute when a stray pass set up Thomas Oluwa, but he shot just wide of the Rovers goal. On 11 minutes a good one-two by Rovers inside the Wexford area created the first goal for Rovers. After Farrugia put in a decent cross for Rovers which wasn’t finished, Wexford were awarded what looked like a soft peno when a player went down in traffic but Pohls in the Rovers goal got down well to save at the expense of a corner. Wexford went close to scoring from this corner as Luka Lovic touched the ball over the Rovers bar from close in. On the half-hour, Aaron Greene, whose runs off the shoulder of the Wexford defenders created danger during the whole game, got put through and blasted past Alex Moody for 2-0. This was followed by a joke of a penalty award for Rovers when a Wexford defender got a good chunk of the ball and a Rovers attacker fell over his leg. Gary O’Neill converted for 3-0 at half-time.

Second half saw Wexford making a number of changes including Reece, Cian Curtis, Brandon, Aaron Robinson, Dobbsy, Ben Lynch, William Gaul and a couple of further triallists. Dobbsy, who was looking sharp, soon latched onto a poor Rovers pass to finish well past Pohls and it was 3-1. After Alex Moody made a good save from a Rovers free, another gruesome penalty award for Rovers followed when Moody pushed away a through-ball by Rovers for a corner and a Rovers attacker fell over his arm. An incident you see in virtually every game but penalised on this occasion by a peno. It was 5-1 when Rovers created a fine move which resulted in a tap-in. Wexford actually played some decent football at the end but couldn’t add to their tally. Best for Wexford were Ethan Boyle, Kaylem Harnett who played first half only and Dobbsy in the second half who is the key Wexford player. Before you’d tip Wexford to perhaps have a chance of the title, you’d like to see them add a further keeper and possibly two centre halves. Shamrock Rovers were very impressive and if that was only half their squad, they’ll be difficult to beat for their fifth league title.