Wallace satisfied with Youths' progress
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With a pre-season aim of moving up the table and topping last season’s 7th place finish, Wexford Youths’ manager Mick Wallace was in positive form after seeing his side beat a dogged Finn Harps side last Saturday evening at Ferrycarrig Park. Despite scoring two goals, missing a penalty and having a shot bundled off the line, the home side allowed Finn Harps back into the game late on and had to regain their composure to see out the tie and hold on to their 5th spot in the table.
Wexford’s opening games this season saw them narrowly beaten by Shelbourne, Waterford Utd and Sporting Fingal, and add in the home loss to Limerick, the Slaneysider’s early form wasn’t looking too healthy. But the Limerick loss has been the only dropped points from their last five games, and the club is now leading the chasing pack behind the “Big Four” and looks to be gelling despite the lack of experienced firepower in the forward ranks.
“It was dicey enough at the end,” Mick Wallace admitted afterwards. “I mean we let Finn Harps back into it a bit the last 10 minutes of the first half and then we took over again at the start of the second half. We started to get the ball a bit wider and we started to look to punish them. Obviously, we missed the first penalty, but we scored the second and were well in control after going two up, but again we let them back into it a bit. There was space breaking on us and we nearly paid the price for it – we have to learn from that too.”
When it was put to him how the team seems to be coping well without so many strikers and that the tactical system seems to be improving with Gavin Doyle up-front on his own, the manager was quick to refer to his returning strikers, Danny Furlong, Paul Murphy and Gary Sheehan who “all started training last Thursday - so it’s great to have them available to add to the squad,” Wallace said.
“When you look and see we had guys on the bench tonight like Patsy Malone, Rossiter, Miller and Marty Kelly. They’ve all been starting for a long time and we’ve some really good under 18s who we’re resting at the moment like Gareth Wallace and Conor Wallace to come in,” continued the Youths’ supremo, tipping the team’s progress to continue when at full strength over the coming months.
One player mentioned to Wallace was Liam O’Loughlin, whose sweet match winner and overall play away to UCD saw him retain his place in the side for Saturday’s test against Finn Harps. “Loughy’s done very well since he’s come back in. He got tired there tonight, though, the no.11 was starting to skin him so we switched him over to the other side and Kearney got tired too. The no.11, Mark Brolly for them, was really hurting us for the last 15 minutes so we brought Rossi on to stay with him.”
Finn Harps could have made more with a late free kick at the end as Conor Gethins shaped to deceive, but planted his well positioned free straight into the home wall on the edge of the box. The Wexford boss revealed his thoughts on the advantages of such situations when you’re counting down the clock.
“I nearly like to see the opposition get a free on the outside of the box because it takes up nearly a minute or a minute and a half. It’s hard for a player to score from that position, unless you’ve a real free kick specialist in your ranks. As you know, about only one in eight or ten scores, so I don’t really mind giving away free kicks considering.”
Wexford’s opening games this season saw them narrowly beaten by Shelbourne, Waterford Utd and Sporting Fingal, and add in the home loss to Limerick, the Slaneysider’s early form wasn’t looking too healthy. But the Limerick loss has been the only dropped points from their last five games, and the club is now leading the chasing pack behind the “Big Four” and looks to be gelling despite the lack of experienced firepower in the forward ranks.
“It was dicey enough at the end,” Mick Wallace admitted afterwards. “I mean we let Finn Harps back into it a bit the last 10 minutes of the first half and then we took over again at the start of the second half. We started to get the ball a bit wider and we started to look to punish them. Obviously, we missed the first penalty, but we scored the second and were well in control after going two up, but again we let them back into it a bit. There was space breaking on us and we nearly paid the price for it – we have to learn from that too.”
When it was put to him how the team seems to be coping well without so many strikers and that the tactical system seems to be improving with Gavin Doyle up-front on his own, the manager was quick to refer to his returning strikers, Danny Furlong, Paul Murphy and Gary Sheehan who “all started training last Thursday - so it’s great to have them available to add to the squad,” Wallace said.
“When you look and see we had guys on the bench tonight like Patsy Malone, Rossiter, Miller and Marty Kelly. They’ve all been starting for a long time and we’ve some really good under 18s who we’re resting at the moment like Gareth Wallace and Conor Wallace to come in,” continued the Youths’ supremo, tipping the team’s progress to continue when at full strength over the coming months.
One player mentioned to Wallace was Liam O’Loughlin, whose sweet match winner and overall play away to UCD saw him retain his place in the side for Saturday’s test against Finn Harps. “Loughy’s done very well since he’s come back in. He got tired there tonight, though, the no.11 was starting to skin him so we switched him over to the other side and Kearney got tired too. The no.11, Mark Brolly for them, was really hurting us for the last 15 minutes so we brought Rossi on to stay with him.”
Finn Harps could have made more with a late free kick at the end as Conor Gethins shaped to deceive, but planted his well positioned free straight into the home wall on the edge of the box. The Wexford boss revealed his thoughts on the advantages of such situations when you’re counting down the clock.
“I nearly like to see the opposition get a free on the outside of the box because it takes up nearly a minute or a minute and a half. It’s hard for a player to score from that position, unless you’ve a real free kick specialist in your ranks. As you know, about only one in eight or ten scores, so I don’t really mind giving away free kicks considering.”
