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Thursday, February 04, 2010
Brosnan seals it with a fist
Wexford 1-11 Westmeath 0-8
BEN BROSNAN has been accepting the mantle of chief score-merchant in the absence of Matty Forde with plenty of assuredness, and the nifty Bannow boy was at it again last Sunday afternoon when he crowned another top contribution by fisting home an injury time goal to seal the Wexford footballers’ passage to the Shield final of the O’Byrne Cup tournament, where they face Carlow.
And those who stayed on after the curtain-raising hurling clash between Wexford and UCD were absolutely thrilled to see that goal – as it prevented the game from slipping into an additional 20 minutes of extra-time, something which certainly wouldn’t have been welcome on an afternoon at Gorey which even the brass monkeys wouldn’t have braved, and the sun didn’t even ease the discomfort.
There was plenty in Wexford’s play to warm the cockles during the first-half however as they made amends for the dreary showing a week earlier against Longford with a far more urgent approach on this occasion.
Indeed, while they got to half-time leading by 0-8 to 0-3 they were unlucky not to have added a goal and a few more points by then.
In fairness, Westmeath were light a good number of first-choice figures, with Dessie Dolan not having returned yet, while his fellow attacking ace Denis Glennon was held in reserve until the secondhalf, during which he made his presence felt.
Wexford shipped the first score, with the man who stepped in for Glennon at corner-forward, James Durcan pointing in the fourth-minute.
But the midlanders were quickly on the back-foot as Wexford used the leather quite efficiently while aided by the stiff breeze.
Three points in as many minutes saw them turn the tables by 0-3 to 0-1 after eight minutes, with Kilmore man Paddy Byrne setting the tone for a high-rating display personally as he tied matters.
He almost quickly added a goal, but the Westmeath ‘keeper parried his powerful drive from the right over at the expense of a point. Adrian Morrissey and Redmond Barry then combined to get Ben Brosnan through for a neatly worked point.
As stated earlier, the only draw-back of Wexford’s early exploits were the scores that they missed, and they began to experience some disappointment on that front during a nine-minute long scoring drought which was eventually ended when Brosnan (free) and Byrne kicked further points to extend the gap to 0-5 to 0-1 after 20 minutes.
This margin was maintained after 32 minutes when Brosnan negated a couple of Westmeath points with strikes from play and a close range free. Wexford lost one of their most influential men shortly afterwards when Adrian Morrissey suffered a shoulder injury while bravely winning possession.
It resulted in Wexford finishing out the half a man light as they opted against immediately replacing Morrissey in the hope that he might recover enough to solider on.
They fared well nevertheless, and ‘Red’ Barry was brilliantly set up by Adrian Flynn for a blistering drive on goal that was parried at the expense of a ‘45, which Brosnan pointed to make it 0-8 to 0-3 at the changeover.
Morrissey was replaced on the restart by Patrick Naughter, while Damien Carter came in at the back for David Walsh – the fullback had suffered a head wound in the Longford match, and he was hauled off on Sunday after suffering a blow to the same area just prior to the interval; Carter came in at cornerback as Joey Wadding took over on the edge-ofthesquare, and the defence was well employed during the secondhalf as Westmeath bit back having been boosted by the introduction of Glennon.
In fairness, determined Wexford responded to an early Glennon point with similar scores from Naughter and Brosnan (free) to lead by 0-10 to 04.
But Westmeath had their tails up, and in between those Wexford scores the locals enjoyed a massive let off when a punched effort from Glennon rebounded off the butt of the far upright before thankfully being cleared by Gavin Morris – the third different man to mind the Wexford net in as many weeks.
Westmeath did muster four unanswered points between the 47th and 52nd minutes to really have the purple-and gold under pressure as they narrowed the margin to 0-10 to 0-8.
The hosts were themselves denied by the woodwork moments later, with an effort from Brosnan coming back out off the angle of upright and crossbar much to Westmeath’s relief.
At the opposite end of the pitch though Wexford were fortunate to see the visitors begin to waste some very good opportunities, and the home-side’s lengthy search for a score (their first in 26 minutes) ended when wing-back Aindreas Doyle took a peach of a score from the extreme left with two minutes of normal-time left.
Good work by Joey Wadding prevented Westmeath from hitting back, while Wexford shot their tenth wide prior to Brosnan putting the seal on victory 30 seconds into added time – when the smallest man on the pitch leapt to fist a cross from the right corner by Adrian Flynn to the net.
It earns Wexford back-to-back wins, setting a good tone heading into Sunday’s league opener against flying Louth.
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