Shelbourne

[ForzaForth]

Narrow but deserved win by Shelbourne in Ferrycarrig tonightas they looked more likely to score but Wexford’s efforts during the 90 minutes will have pleased Wexford manager Damian Locke. Wexfordstarted with Kealan, AJ, Ross, Sean, John, Liam, Mikey, Crokey, Hopper, Owen Wall and with Danny Doyle up front. Wexford had an early chance when Danny Doyle skinned Dave Mulcahy out wide and got pulled down, but the Wexford free came to nothing. Boyne for Shels then had a good shot from distance following a Shels corner but Kealan Gaffney in the Wexford goal was able to push it around the post for a corner. Dean Delany in the Shels goal then did well to knock away a good free-kick by Hopper Kenny which came over the Shels wall. Shels had Wexford in trouble all night from corners with the Wexford defence unable to prevent free headers by the Dublin side. The first came on 18 minutes when a Shels attacker couldn’t keep a header on target from eight yards out. Following a yellow card for James O’Brien of Shels for a tackle on Thomas Croke of Wexford, another Shels free header from a corner this time fell to Dave Mulcahy but again he couldn’t keep it on target. A Hopper Kenny volley which went wide of the Shels goal then closed the half with a 0-0 scoreline.

[ForzaForth]

Wexford began the second half well and Delany had to be alert to push away a low shot by Thomas Croke. Shels then followed with a good spell of their own and Gaffney couldn’t hold a low Shels cross at the near post which was then cleared by the Wexford defencebefore Shels had the ball in the net but the offside flag had gone up just a few seconds before. The turning point came on the hour mark with Shels forcing five corners in quick succession. From the last of these corners, the ball wasn’t cleared from the Wexford box and it was drilled home by Shelbourne although Gaffney claimed that he had been impeded in the act of clearing. Dean Kelly, Aaron Dobbs and Dean George then came on as subs for Wexford. With five minutes to go, Wexford’s real chance of an equaliser came when Owen Wall turned inside his marker and had space inside the Shels box for a shot, but his effort on goal scraped the top of the bar at the far corner with Delany helpless. So 1-0 to Shels at full-time with Wexford having improved greatly and just looking vulnerable at the set-piece. Best for Wexford were Sean Kelly, Ross Kenny, John Morgan and Thomas Croke. Maybe 300 at the game with good Shels support there.