Wexford showed renewed vitality as they secured a vital win in the Avenir All-Island Cup against Shamrock Rovers in Ferrycarrig this evening with the away side of course missing their two international squad players, Abbie Larkin and Aine O’Gorman. The concession of two late goals by the home side, however, may make qualification from the group that bit more difficult should it go to goal difference. Wexford began with Maeve, Lolly, Lauren, Kylie, Abbie, Rossi, Meabh, Michaela, Nicola, Aoibheann and Rianna. Shamrock Rovers’ passing game is better than the Youths and they pushed the ball around well at the start although without really threatening Maeve Williams’ goal. Two early corners for Rovers and a dangerous cross which Maeve Williams did well to push away was the most Rovers could manage in the first quarter-hour. Where Wexford had Rovers in trouble, however, was when the home side could get the ball into the attacking third with Rianna Jarrett, Ciara Rossiter and Abbie Brophy all having fine games. The first goal came for Wexford on 17 minutes when a short back-pass by Rovers was leapt on by Jarrett, who rounded Summer Lawless in the Rovers’ goal and knocked it into the empty net for 1-0 to Wexford. Rovers continued to have some nice, if ineffective possession, while Wexford’s more direct play enabled Rossi to have a shot saved by Lawless and a lob by Kylie Murphy which went wide of the Rovers’ post. It was 2-0 to Wexford on 38 minutes when Kylie Murphy looked to be taken down in the Rovers’ penalty area but the ball broke to Ciara Rossiter in any event who drilled a low shot into the corner of the net. 2-0 to Wexford. After Rianna had a good chance saved by Lawless, former Wexford player, Lauren Kelly, who played very well before going off injured, somehow got a shot away despite being surrounded by Wexford defenders, and it hit off both posts before crossing the Wexford goal-line. 2-1 at halftime with Rovers back in the game.
Wexford brought on Freya DeMange at the start of the second half for Michaela Lawrence who had got both a smack on the head and a yellow card during the first half. Next goal was going to be crucial and it fell Wexford’s way after just four minutes when Rianna Jarrett buried a header from a good cross by Meabh Russell. 3-1 to Wexford. Maeve Williams then did well to prevent Shamrock Rovers best player, Jaime Thompson, from scoring before a through-ball by Wexford enabled Ciara Rossiter to round Summer Lawless for 4-1 to Wexford, On this form, there isn’t a left-winger in the country anywhere close to Rossi in terms of effectiveness. Substitutions followed for both sides with Emily Corbet, Jess Lawlor and Claudia Keenan included in the Wexford replacements. It was 5-1 for Wexford on 23 minutes when Nicola Sinnott was allowed a free header at the far post from a Wexford corner. With Wexford spurning a number of other chances, goals by Stephanie Zambra and Jaime Thompson then improved the look of the scoreboard from Rovers viewpoint to make it 5-3 at the end. Wexford now need to build on this result in the second half of the season.
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