Wallace delights in Athlone win
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Wexford Youth Manager Mick Wallace could not hide his delight Friday night after seeing his side record their second consecutive 1-0 win in the league. He couldn’t be blamed as the game saw the home side lose keeper Packie Holden early in the first half to a freak accident which saw top scorer Gavin Doyle go between the posts and 17 year old Jimmy Keohane come on in his place up front. When asked about the outlook for the keeper, the Warriors man said ‘He walked on the ball alright and he twisted his knee. I don’t know if or how long he’ll be out yet and people say I’m mad not to have a keeper on the bench and it was the case tonight but Gavin was great. His positioning was perfect; he’s as sly as a fox.’
‘1-0 is my favourite score-line’ claimed Wallace referring to the win and the previous result away to Longford before the break. When asked about his hugging of Keohane on the way off the pitch after the young striker had scored a beautiful winner Wallace said ‘Ah man, he’s pure class. I’ll tell you what; people don’t know how good Jimmy is. He’s serious bit of stuff - the amount of times when Jimmy ran from past the half way line, received the ball to feet and made up a good position to get it back, he’s awesome.
With ten minutes to go, Youths left back Johnny Flynn O’Connor received his second yellow of the game and was sent off for a late tackle on Reilly. The first card though, in the first half, was seen by many at the game as being innocuous enough and seemed to be for dissent at a corner. Wallace spoke of the amount of cards dealt out to his side during the game despite the lack of over-doing it on display by either side. ‘There was no sense in some of the yellow cards, there wasn’t a dirty challenge in the match yet how many yellows did we get. We got about six yellows, some of which didn’t make any sense at all.’
That loss of a player so late in the game should have had an effect on the home side with such a slender lead, but Sheahan and Keohane saw to it that the pressure was kept up the other end. Wallace was quick to praise both as he commented on the earlier, winning goal – a first senior goal for Keohane ‘a super goal, he nearly took the net out of it. “I thought there was no way Garry should have gotten to that ball but there is no substitute for hard work. That was Athlone’s ball, but he took it over the odds and got it across."
Wallace felt ‘that in the first half they stopped us from developing any momentum but in the second half we went at them. We caught them by the jugular, from the word go we had much more urgency about us and we moved the ball quicker, got it wide quicker and we got the support up quicker. Wallace also discussed defender Peter White in his role as a midfielder during the game due to the absence of Captain Conor Sinnott and his usual partner Patsey Malone, ‘He works very hard, Dempsey also had a great second half. At the back, Anto and Breener had very good games.’ Next up for the Youths in the league are Limerick away this Friday. A result there would see the side pull 11 points away and close the gap on the top-four. The game is followed by a friendly at home to Mark Kinsella’s Charlton Athletic FC at Ferrycarrig Park on Sunday with a rumoured friendly against local lad Kevin Doyle’s new side Wolves to be confirmed shortly after.
‘1-0 is my favourite score-line’ claimed Wallace referring to the win and the previous result away to Longford before the break. When asked about his hugging of Keohane on the way off the pitch after the young striker had scored a beautiful winner Wallace said ‘Ah man, he’s pure class. I’ll tell you what; people don’t know how good Jimmy is. He’s serious bit of stuff - the amount of times when Jimmy ran from past the half way line, received the ball to feet and made up a good position to get it back, he’s awesome.
With ten minutes to go, Youths left back Johnny Flynn O’Connor received his second yellow of the game and was sent off for a late tackle on Reilly. The first card though, in the first half, was seen by many at the game as being innocuous enough and seemed to be for dissent at a corner. Wallace spoke of the amount of cards dealt out to his side during the game despite the lack of over-doing it on display by either side. ‘There was no sense in some of the yellow cards, there wasn’t a dirty challenge in the match yet how many yellows did we get. We got about six yellows, some of which didn’t make any sense at all.’
That loss of a player so late in the game should have had an effect on the home side with such a slender lead, but Sheahan and Keohane saw to it that the pressure was kept up the other end. Wallace was quick to praise both as he commented on the earlier, winning goal – a first senior goal for Keohane ‘a super goal, he nearly took the net out of it. “I thought there was no way Garry should have gotten to that ball but there is no substitute for hard work. That was Athlone’s ball, but he took it over the odds and got it across."
Wallace felt ‘that in the first half they stopped us from developing any momentum but in the second half we went at them. We caught them by the jugular, from the word go we had much more urgency about us and we moved the ball quicker, got it wide quicker and we got the support up quicker. Wallace also discussed defender Peter White in his role as a midfielder during the game due to the absence of Captain Conor Sinnott and his usual partner Patsey Malone, ‘He works very hard, Dempsey also had a great second half. At the back, Anto and Breener had very good games.’ Next up for the Youths in the league are Limerick away this Friday. A result there would see the side pull 11 points away and close the gap on the top-four. The game is followed by a friendly at home to Mark Kinsella’s Charlton Athletic FC at Ferrycarrig Park on Sunday with a rumoured friendly against local lad Kevin Doyle’s new side Wolves to be confirmed shortly after.
