Keogh excited at Limerick challenge

When your work brief is preventing Denis Behan from having an effect on a game, you know you earn your money if you fulfil your manager’s wishes. Wexford Youths defender Karl Keogh sees this as an opportunity to improve and to test himself against the very best.

Wexford Youths travel to Jackman Park on Friday evening looking to repeat their performance from earlier on in the year, as a late goal grabbed Wexford all three points against Pat Scully’s men back in April. Unlike their opponents on Friday, Wexford have been lurking around the bottom the table all year long. Stuck in a relegation battle with Salthill, Keogh realises the importance of all the remaining games.

He said: “Any points at all are vital for us with the situation we are in, but it’s all our own doing. On paper we shouldn't really be where we are with the squad we have but that's football and with a young side it’s difficult to grind out results”. While the negatives are there for all to see, there is a reason to be optimistic ahead of the tie according to Keogh. “We seem to do better against the top teams in terms of performance so hopefully we can pick up a much needed result in Jackman Park and develop some breathing space between ourselves and Salthill.”

Reflecting back on that famous victory in April, the young defender feels Wexford can produce a similar result due to their determined attitude. “As anyone who was at the last game will know, they had the ball for most of the game but we defended excellently on the night and got a late goal on the counter attack right at the end. If we can do the same tomorrow night it will be great, we just have to be very patient because we know Limerick are a very good side and have a lot of players that can hurt us, but we won’t be afraid tomorrow night we'll give 100% as we always do.”

Denis Behan has been crucial to Limerick’s good form recently. The striker has enjoyed his opening few months with the Blues, scoring seven goals. It is likely that Keogh will be given the task to keep the Limerick native at bay, and it is a task he is relishing. “I’m very excited; it’s always great to play against the top players and it will be a great learning curb for me, as he is a great player with a proven record in this country and in England, so if I can stop him scoring it'll be job done and I’ll be happy.”

While many expect Wexford to “park the bus” as they say, Keogh warns of Wexford’s attacking options. He does not believe that Wexford will simply sit back and hope for just a clean sheet. “When playing away from home against a very strong Limerick side with the quality of players they have, our first focus is going to be to defend but we have good attacking options as well. We are well capable of scoring goals and we've proven that with the likes of Danny furlong having twelve or thirteen goals. We probably don’t expect to see much of the ball in the early stages of the game but if we keep things tight we are well capable of grabbing a goal or two.”