St. Patrick's Athletic

[ForzaForth]

After being outplayed for most of the game, Youths put in a storming finish to create three good chances but couldn't take any in a entertaining encounter in Ferrycarrig tonight helped by a zippy pitch. Youths began 4-5-1 with Graham, Craig, Gary, Lasty, Lee, Aidan, Jonny, Hopper, Duxey , Andy and with Danny up front. First twenty minutes were dominated by Pats with Wexford unable to make any impression on Brendan Clarke in the Pats goal. Pats had an effort deflected for a corner on five minutes and then on ten Kelly for Pats had a header tipped over the bar by Graham Doyle. On 15 minutes, a Fagan header from a Conan Byrne cross was pushed away by Graham with some degree of difficulty. Wexford's first real effort on goal came on 20 minutes with a dangerous cross by Andy Mulligan, but Darren Dennehy facing his own goal was able to clear the danger. Wexford's main problem was giving the ball away too easily in their own half, and it unfortunately led to the only goal of the game on 27 minutes when the concession of the ball by Wexford was followed up by a neat 1-2 by Pats which put Bermingham clear on goal and he finished easily past Graham Doyle for 1-0 to the away side. Craig McCabe was then lucky not to see a card for a lunge on a Pats attacker before Fagan had another header on target but this time it was an easier grab for Graham Doyle. With five to go in the half, Danny had a turn and a shot against Clarke but it proved an easy catch for the Pats netminder. Craig McCabe then caused turmoil in the Pats defence with the first of his trademark long throws and the half ended with a wild effort on goal by Sean Hoare with Youths probably happy to be still in the game at 1-0 to Pats at half-time.

[ForzaForth]

Pats began the second half in similar fashion and another loss of the ball in the Youth's own half created another Pats chance but it was blazed over. On ten minutes,a good Pats move was ruined by an offside flag. Two minutes later, Bermingham collected a yellow card for a deliberate handball. On the quarter hour, Pats had a decent header which went just over the corner of the bar. On sixteen minutes, the game opened up for Wexford with the introduction of Roxy Keenan in place of Aidan Friel. The ball was now sticking in the Pats defence and it nearly paid dividends for the Youths. Roxy picked up a yellow almost immediately and then a similar card was shown to a Pats player for simulation. Graham Doyle first had to make a very good save to keep out a Billy Dennehy swerver. With ten to go, the ball was fed out to the newly introduced Conor O'Keeffe for the Youths, and his cross was acrobatically volleyed just over by Danny from twelve yards out. This was followed by an error in the Pats defence, and Danny's first time effort was cleared off the line by the last Pats defender. Then, right on the 90 minutes, the diminutive Andy Mulligan put a header over from about six yards out with Brendan Clarke rooted to his line to leave Pats narrow winners on a 1-0 scoreline.

[ForzaForth]

Questions which remain would be could Wexford have gone for it earlier or could Roxy, coming back from a long-term injury, have come on earlier? With Spot Murphy due to come back from suspension, there are now more options for Wexford going forward. Crowd was better than I expected on a Bank Holiday Monday with maybe 600 at the match helped by a good away support.