WYW v UCD Waves

[ForzaForth]

WYW were the happier of the two teams to come away with a draw from Jackson Park this afternoon as they found it very hard to break down a very determined UCD Waves who clearly didn't want to be on the losing side for the fourth time this season. WYW began with Tamara, Nicola, Jess, Ruth, Ciara, Edel, Aisling, Emma, Kylie and with Rianna and Claire up front. There was a howling gale blowing straight down the Jackson Park pitch and it got so bad at times that the dead ball moved at some pace before it was struck. UCD scored with their first attack playing with the wind in the first minute when the ball was crossed from the right and the WYW defence didn't clear, leaving a UCD attacker with a simple job of knocking it past Tamara Furlong for 1-0. Eileen Gleeson then introduced the unusual tactic of allowing the Youths to pass freely up to the half-way line and then asking WYW to break the UCD Waves defence down for the remainder of the match. WYW found it hard to solve the puzzle and hardly created a chance until, with ten minutes to go in the match, Rianna Jarrett came across her marker and planted a bullet header past McGuirk in the UCD goal to even the match up.

[ForzaForth]

With ten minutes gone, Tamara did well to grab a difficult cross at the second attempt. On the quarter-hour, WYW had their first chance when Rianna Jarrett just couldn't make contact with a dangerous cross from Emma Hansberry. With 23 minutes gone, Tamara pushed away a decent effort by UCD's Aine O'Gorman for a corner. Ruth Fahy then got a yellow for a tackle before Aine O'Gorman hit the top of the crossbar with a free. 1-0 to UCD at half-time and the wind blowing in favour of WYW for the second half. However, UCD looked the more threatening at the start of thesecond period, and after four minutes, Nicola Sinnott had to be sharp to hook away the ball after Tamara had parried a dangerous effort from UCD. Three minutes later, a tall UCD defender just headed over from a corner. With ten gone, Kylie Murphy had WYW's first effort on goal when she shot over the bar when inside the UCD penalty area. With the half-hour to go, Linda Douglas came on in place of Ruth Fahy and made a real difference playing down the right wing. Two further yellow cards were then shown to Wexford's Edel Kennedy and Ciara Rossiter. With just less than 15 minutes to go, Becky Cassin came on in place of Edel Kennedy. When you couldn't see where WYW were going to get the equaliser, Ciara Rossiter put a good cross into the UCD box from the left, which enabled Rianna Jarrett to come from behind her marker and smack a header past McGuirk for 1-1. WYW applied some pressure after getting the equaliser but didn't really threaten again to leave the score at 1-1 at full-time. Best for Wexford were probably Emma Hansberry and Edel Kennedy with Linda Douglas doing well when she came on. The draw is enough for the Youths to qualify for the semi-finals of the WNL Shield.