Galway

[ForzaForth]

Tight match in Ferrycarrig tonight but shaded by the away side who, in a match of very few chances, took their chance and then looked the more likely to score again rather than a disappointing home team. With Ryan missing and Shane Dunne suspended, Youths replaced both their fulls and moved Peter Higgins to the centre of midfield with Graham, Craig, Killian, Lasty, Jimmy, Deano, Peter, Shane N., Eric and Rocks and Danny up front. First quarter hour was uneventful with Galway tidier on the ball and Wexford looking quicker round the pitch and it already had the feel of a low-scoring game. First decent chance fell to Wexford after 18 minutes when interplay between Danny and Deano gave both a shot on goal, but Gleeson in the Galway goal was able to push away the second effort for a Wexford corner. With 23 minutes gone, Deano picked up a yellow for a corner. An error in the Wexford defence allowed Faherty of Galway to have a run down the right wing but his near-post effort was pushed away by Graham for a corner. Best chance of the half then fell to Rocks with ten minutes to go, when a good pass put him free, but Gleeson did well to knock his goal-bound effort away for a corner. Just before the half-time whistle, Shane Nolan got a yellow for a tackle and the first-half ended 0-0 with very few decent chances for either side.

[ForzaForth]

Second half began with Galway looking brighter and after two minutes, Graham had to advance quickly to block a Galway forward from taking a shot from fifteen yards out. On 12 minutes, the useful Manning had a free header but Graham got down low to grab it. Then, on fifteen minutes a Galway cross found Manning free in the box and his looped header left the advancing Graham helpless for 1-0 to the away side. Wexford's passing, which had never been great, then deteriorated further as they tried to get back into the game with the result that Galway were given regular opportunities to have a run at an unprotected Wexford defence. As a result, Graham was called upon again and again to stop Galway efforts although most of his saves were fairly routine. In contrast, nothing was happening for Wexford in the final third and Gleeson had very little to do in the Galway goal. With 15 minutes to go, Ben and Graham Delaney came on for Shane Nolan and Rocks, who had received treatment on a couple of occasions.

[ForzaForth]

A further late sub for Wexford was Danny Fitz while Galway subs were Keegan, Elwood and Derek O'Brien. Two late frees by Wexford in injury-time, both of which were dealt with competently by the Galway defence were the best that Wexford could produce and the match ended on a 1-0 scoreline for the away side. Best for Wexford were Graham in goal, while Killian and Lasty had a lot to do in front of him and Peter Higgins tried hard in midfield. However, Wexford's passing during the second period was extremely poor and far too often the home side were having to work backwards in order to cover their own errors.
The ploy of starting with the two wingers, Deano and Eric, on their non-natural sides also didn't work as they were drawn into the midfield area rather than using the width of the pitch. Best for Galway was Manning down the left while their two tall centre-halves also dominated in the air most of the match thus further blunting the Wexford attack. 1-0 to Galway at the end with about 360 at the match including good away support from Galway.